International Human Rights Law Hopkins-Nanjing Center	DH Kaye Fall 2007
SYLLABUS

This course examines the international law of human rights—its origin, sources, content, enforcement, and justifications. It also surveys the legal recognition and protection of human rights within various countries. Part one introduces the idea of rights from the historical, philosophical, and analytical perspectives. Part two, the main part of the course, is devoted to a study of the detailed contents of the international human rights law as found in international treaties, customary international law, and other sources of law. This part explores the substantive doctrine -- the "primary rules of conduct" -- as well as the "procedural" aspects of international human rights and international criminal law such as adjudication and remedies. Part three explores issues relating to selected rights from a comparative (international, United States, and other national law) perspective.

Students are expected to participate in classroom discussions of the assigned readings and to make classroom presentations on specific rights or issues. Grades will be based on class participation, the presentations, and a moot court exercise.

The textbooks are Henkin et al., Human Rights (1999), and Nickel, Making Sense of Human Rights (3d ed. 2007).

Office: F204; Telephone: 8368-6713 (公寓房间 8359-3709)

The following schedule is highly tentative and will be revised as the course progresses. For example, the quantity of reading listed in Part III will be reduced. At this point, the main purpose of the syllabus is to display the particular topics that might be covered. Revisions and supplemental materials will be posted in my folder in the Academic Access area of the Hopkins-Nanjing network server..

Week	Class	Reading	Topic
1	9/19	N ch 1; H 2-6	Overview of International Human Rights
	9/21	H 6-14, 16, 22-23, 28-34, 37-38	The Western Individual Rights Tradition
2	9/26	H 50-54, 42-44, 74-79; N ch 2	Criticism of Social Contract Theory and Modern Understanding of and Justifications for Rights
	9/28	H 274-287, 293-294	The International Human Rights Movement
	9/30		Student Presentations
3	National Day Holiday
4	10/10	H 295-320, H 355-358	Principles of International Law
	10/12	H 286-292, 320-333; UN Charter	The United Nations, the Universal Declaration, and Covenants
5	10/17	H 339-341; Kokkinakis v. Greece	The European Human Rights System
	10/19	H 342-349	Other Regional and Specialized Human Rights Treaties
6	10/24	H 81-86; N ch 8, 9	Economic and Social Rights
	10/26	H 358-383; N ch 6	Women and Children
7	10/31	H 405-426	Refugees
	11/2	H 427-474, N ch 10	Minority and Group Rights
8	11/7	N ch 7	Detention without Trial in the War Against Terror
	11/9	H 475-488	Other Proposed Human Rights
9	11/14	H 106-116; N ch 11	Cultural Relativism and Universal Grounds for Human Rights
	11/16	H 489-523	Implementation by Treaty Bodies
10	Fall Break
11	11/28	H 523-607	Implementation by Regional Bodies
	11/30	H 608-664	Implementation by International Criminal Law
12	12/5	H 665-683	Implementation by International Adjudication
	12/7	H 684-736	International Political Implementation
13	12/12	H 737-769	Non-governmental Organizations
	12/14	H 770-882	Implementation by Domestic Courts
14	12/19	H 885-981	Comparative Civil Rights Law
	12/21	H 982-1064	Comparative Civil Rights Law (cont’d)
15	12/26	H 1065-1105	Comparative Political Rights
	12/28	H 1106-1132	Comparative Economic and Social Rights
16	1/2	H 1133-1149	Comparative Economic and Social Rights (cont'd)
	1/4	H 1149-1202	Comparative Economic and Social Rights (cont'd)
17	1/9		Review
	1/11		Final Examination
H = Henkin et al., Human Rights Law (1999) N = Nickel, Making Sense of Human Rights (2d ed. 2007)