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Course Description
Course Objectives
Course Requirements
Grading Scale
Required Texts
International Legal Research Resources
Reading Assignments and Schedule
International law commonly is defined as the rules, principles, and norms which govern the interaction among states. Many scholars of international relations view international law as a meaningful tool for providing order to world politics and for minimizing global conflict. Other scholars of international relations dismiss international law as insignificant. According to these scholars, state interests-- not internationally agreed-upon rules, principles, and norms--guide interaction among states. In this course, we will investigate the basic question underlying this debate over the utility of international law: does international law act as a constraint on state autonomy, or is it merely used by states when it is in their self-interest? In an effort to address this question, we will focus on the fundamental principles of international law, sovereignty and non-intervention, and will consider whether these principles have been eroded in recent decades as a result of growing support for new international legal norms, including human rights.
The Department of Politics and International Relations seeks to induct students into the community of liberally educated individuals who are capable of understanding government and politics in terms of the theories, concepts, and tools of sophisticated political analysis which characterize the discipline of political science. The liberal-arts dimension of our mission stems from our belief that all people are embedded in a political environment which acts upon them in ways they must understand if they are to function effectively as active participants in a democratic society. Our goal, therefore, is not to train professional political scientists, but rather to produce the liberally educated citizen who is fluent in the language of politics and political analysis and thereby has a foundation for both citizenship in a democratic society and successful training in a job, in a graduate school, or in a professional school. Such a person has the capacity to recognize and evaluate assumptions, implications, and causal relationships pertaining to government and politics and, by extension, to other realms of human experience. Go to the home page of the Department of Politics and International Relations for more information on the basic objectives of the general program and upper-level courses in the department.
Additional course-specific objectives include the following:
1. To develop students' ability to identify and apply international legal principles relevant to current issues and events in global politics
2. To develop skills in analytical reasoning
3. To improve students' ability to write with precision, clarity, and logical coherence
1. Three exams (60%): Students will take two exams during the semester and a final exam at the end of the semester. These exams will consist of several short answer questions, application problems, and essay questions. The short answer questions and application problems will require you to identify and apply legal principles to specific international issues or conflicts. The essay questions typically will require you to write a "mini" legal brief in which you develop a legal argument, drawing on legal principles we have covered in class, regarding a current issue in world politics or addressing a hypothetical international legal problem. Each exam will be worth 20% of your final grade. Exams will be graded for content, grammar, and style. I also will expect you to incorporate explicit references to the required readings where applicable. Though the final exam questions will focus largely on the course material covered in the third part of the course, they also will require students to build upon the cumulative knowledge they have gained throughout the course.
**Make-up exams will be given only in the case of family emergencies and serious illness, and I will require you to document your illness or emergency. In order to take a make-up exam, you must have a legitimate, verifiable family emergency or illness, and you must contact me in advance of the exam. Make-up exams must be taken within five days of the original exam date unless exceptional circumstances warrant a longer extension.
2. Two Legal Briefs and Group Presentations (40%): Two times during the semester, I will require students to complete a legal brief on a current issue in global politics. The briefs should be 7-10, double-spaced pages with one-inch margins, including footnotes. You will be required to focus on legal principles, rather than political, economic, or policy concerns, in these briefs and will need to cite sources of international law to support your arguments. Though much of the relevant legal material will be covered in class, students also will need to consult other sources of international law in the law library and on the Internet. Each brief will be worth 20% of your final grade. Grades on late briefs will be lowered by 1% point per day (note: this deduction means 1 percentage point off of your final grade per day).
While students will write legal briefs independently, the class will be divided into several groups for conducting legal research. I will assign certain groups to argue opposing sides in a specific case. During the class period in which your legal briefs are due, we will have "group presentations" in which the relevant cases are argued. Your contributions to and participation in these groups will be factored into your grades for your legal briefs. I will ask students to submit peer evaluations of group members. Students who do not contribute effectively to or participate in the group presentations will have their brief grades docked accordingly. Further details regarding these presentations will be provided in class.
Because you will be assigned to groups for these projects, you will be collaborating in conducting research for the legal briefs/ presentations. However, I expect you to write your legal briefs independently. Of course, plagiarism will not be tolerated.
3. Class Attendance and Participation: Class attendance and participation will not be formally graded. Nevertheless, active student participation is an essential part of this course. I will use class attendance and participation in making judgements about final grades when students are on the border between letter grades. Students should come to class prepared to discuss the assigned readings in a thoughtful, productive, and civil manner. You should be ready to ask and answer questions on the assigned readings. You need to participate actively in the class, but you should not attempt to dominate class discussion. I expect that students often will disagree with each other and with me. I will encourage an atmosphere in which we are free to challenge and criticize each other's arguments, but I expect all of us to be respectful and civil in our disagreements.
Because of the technical nature of this material, I will have to spend time lecturing each week. However, we also will spend class time considering problems which are relevant to the concepts of international law we are studying. Students will be assigned to groups which will work on "resolving" these legal problems. You will need to be able to answer the following types of questions: What is the legal question at issue? What concepts of international law are relevant? What legal arguments can be made to answer this legal question. In order to effectively address these legal problems, all students will need to be prepared to apply concepts from the required reading. While I will not expect you to have completely mastered the assigned reading material prior to class, you should come to class prepared to contribute to your group's efforts at problem-solving.
In accordance with the emphasis on student-centered learning in Drake's mission statement, this course will stress active student learning. I expect that your consistent attendance and participation will facilitate your understanding of the course material. Moreover, because you will be required to integrate information from readings, lectures, and classroom discussions on the midterm and the final, and in the legal briefs, your performance on the exams should benefit from consistent attendance and participation.
4. Cheating and plagiarism will not be tolerated. Plagiarism is the act of trying to pass off someone else's ideas, words, thoughts or inventions as one's own. Plagiarism may be intentional or unintentional, but it is a violation of academic integrity in either case. You must acknowledge your use of other's work when you quote them word for word (you must use quotation marks in the case of direct quotations), paraphrase, borrow ideas, incorporate factual information from someone else's work, or rely on another person's organization of material. You do not need to provide citations for common knowledge, but it is better to err on the side of caution if you have any doubts. If your paper includes uncited information and/or I suspect plagiarism, I will not grade your paper until you provide satisfactory documentation of your sources. If I discover a case of cheating or plagiarism, I will impose the most serious penalty allowed under university regulations and contingent on the nature of the violation. In cases of egregious plagiarism or cheating, I will give you a failing grade for the course and may recommend additional penalties at the college or university level, including suspension or expulsion. See the statement on Academic Honesty and Integrity at the Department of Politics and IR homepage for further details. Also, see me if you still have questions about academic dishonesty.
A 90-100 (Excellent)
B 80-89 (Good)
C 70-79 (Satisfactory)
D 60-69 (Poor)
F 0-59 (Failure)
1.William R. Slomanson, Fundamental Perspectives on International Law 4th Edition (New York: West Publishing Company, 2003). The Slomanson text includes a course web site which provides access to additional international legal materials, a research guide on international legal resources, and information on career opportunities in international law.
2. Shirley V. Scott, International Law in World Politics (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2004). [consider J. Martin Rochester, Between Peril and Promise: The Politics of International Law (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2006) as an alternative???]
3. Your understanding of international legal issues will be enhanced if you keep abreast of current world politics. I will not require you to subscribe to a specific newspaper. However, you should follow current international events through the media of your choice. Note: certain choices are likely to be wiser than others. National daily newspapers, such as The New York Times or The Christian Science Monitor, provide far more thorough international coverage than local dailes. You also can obtain at least basic information in some weekly newsmagazines or by following CNN. In addition to these examples, most national newspapers and television networks maintain on-line sources of news.
INTERNATIONAL LEGAL RESEARCH RESOURCES
1. Online research resources:
International
and Foreign Legal Materials
Treaties
of Importance
Multilateral
Treaties Project (Fletcher School of Law)
Resources for Foreign and International Legal Research
Constitution
Finder (links to national and state constitutions)
International Court of Justice
Cornell Law Library,
International Court of Justice page
United Nations homepage
United Nations Treaty
Data Base
Foreign
Affairs Online (links to sites in international law, human rights,
and the UN)
Minnesota Human Rights Library
2. Online Journals/ Academic Universe/ Lexis-Nexis: You
can access a variety of resources on world politics, including
full text newspaper articles, legal resources, and reference information
on specific countries, on the Resources
and Reference Page of Cowles Library.
READING ASSIGNMENTS AND SCHEDULE
Part I: What is International Law?
1/18 Introduction to course
1/23 Scott, Chapter 1; Slomanson, Chapter 1, "What is International Law?"
1/25 Scott, Chapter 1 and Slomanson, Chapter 1 continued; Scott, Chapters 5 and 6
1/30 Scott, Chapters 7 and 8; Slomanson, Chapter 8, "Treaty System"
2/1 Read Research Guide on International Resources which can be found on the course web site. Also, read the United Nations Documentation: Research Guide which is online at the UN web site.
Part II:Actors in International Law
2/6 Scott, Chapter 2; Slomanson, Chapter 2, "States in International Law"
2/8 Scott, Chapter 2 and Slomanson, Chapter 2 continued
2/13 Scott, Chapter 3; Slomanson, Chapter 3, "Organizations"
2/15 Scott, Chapter 4, Slomanson, Chapter 4, "Individuals and Corporations"
2/20 Day free for doing research on legal briefs.
2/22 Self-determination in international law; reading to be distributed in class
2/27 EXAM #1
Part III: Territorial Questions and International Transactions
3/1 Slomanson, Chapter 5 "Extraterritorial Jurisdiction"; Slomanson, Chapter 7
3/6 Slomanson, Chapter 6, "Range of Sovereignty,"
3/8 Slomanson, Chapter 6 continued
3/13 Legal Brief #1 Presentations
3/15 Legal Brief #1 Presentations continued
3/17 Legal Briefs #1 due on Blackboard
3/20-24 Spring Break, No Class
Part IV: International Law and Conflict in World Politics
3/27 Slomanson, Chapter 3, "International Organizations" (Read Section 3.3.); Slomanson, Chapter 9, "Arbitration and Adjudication"
3/29 Scott, Chapter 9; Slomanson, Chapter 10, "Use of Force by States and Organizations"
4/3 Scott, Chapter 11 and Slomanson, Chapter 10 continued
4/5 EXAM #2
Part V: Global Issues and International Law
4/10 Scott, Chapter 10; Slomanson, Chapter 11, "Human Rights"
4/12 Scott, Chapter 10 and Slomanson, Chapter 11 continued
4/17 Scott, Chapter 11; Slomanson, Chapter 12, "Environment"
4/19 No class (I'll be presenting at the Midwest Political Science Association Meeting in Chicago)
4/24 Scott, Chapter 12 and Slomanson, Chapter 12 continued
4/26 Legal Brief #2 Presentations
5/1 Legal Brief #2 Presentations continued
5/3 Legal Brief #2 due; concluding discussion: Is international law really law?; course evaluations
The final exam is scheduled for Monday, May 8 from 2:00-3:50.