Teaching code

4S00334

Academic staff

Caterina Fratea, Diletta Danieli,

Coordinator

Caterina Fratea

Credits

9

Language

Italian

Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)

IUS/13 - INTERNATIONAL LAW

Period

1° periodo lezioni (1A), 1° periodo lezioni (1B)

Courses Single

Authorized

Lessons timetable Moodle Seminars 0

Learning objectives

The course aims at examining the three fundamental functions underlying legality in today’s international community: law-making, law-determination and law-enforcement. The course will also highlight how contemporary international law is not only concerned with the relations among governmental actors, but it also increasingly affects the interests and positions of private actors. At the end of the course, students shall have the ability to formulate, in an autonomous and critical way, judgements and elaborated arguments on the main legal questions dealt with in class.

Prerequisites and basic notions

Students must have successfully passed the exams in the courses established as pre-requirement.

Program

The course intends to provide students with the basic knowledge of the international legal order and its main features and functioning, as well as its evolutive dynamics. It is ideally divided in two parts.
In the first, more general part, the course will examine the foundations of the international legal order and its structure, with a special focus on the sources of international law, its classification, interaction and development, as well as on the interrelationship between international and domestic law. Attention will then be devoted to the subjects of international law, focusing on the issue of international legal personality and its implications with regard to States and international organizations, as well as to individuals. Subsequently, the course will examine the topics of the international responsibility, the peaceful settlement of international disputes, the use of force in international relationships and the role and the functioning of the Security Council and Chapter VII of the UN Charter.
The second part of the course focuses on the protection of the individual in international law, on human rights and their different protection mechanisms. Specific attention will be devoted to the regional systems and, above all, to the various mechanisms operating within the Council of Europe and, most notably, the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights based in Strasbourg.
The different topics of the course will be examined in an interactive way, always looking at the current challenges and dynamics of the international community. A special focus will be put on Italy, on its role and engagement within the international community.

Bibliography

Didactic methods

Teaching mode: in-class lectures.
The course will focus on the current legal-political issues involving the international Community and its functioning, whose developments and evolution will be followed and examined with debates and discussions during classes. In particular, the course will examine the litigation before the Europea Court of Human Rights, examining and discussing the most recent and relevant case-law, as well as pending cases.

Learning assessment procedures

The exam consists in a written test, composed of two parts: a number of multiple choice questions and two questions to be answered in writing.
Exam: written exam, consisting in a number of brief and precise questions, to be answered by providing one correct answer among a range of possible options (e.g. multiple choice a-b-c-d; or true/false), and in two open questions, to be answered by writing a brief text. Time at disposal is 2 hours.

Evaluation criteria

The following aspects will be evaluated: the knowledge of the topics covered during the course, the student's reasoning ability, the level of knowledge acquired and the ability to explain topics in the answers, the use of adequate and precise terminology.

Criteria for the composition of the final grade

maximum final score: 30/30
multiple choices questions: 20 points
open questions: 10 points

Exam language

Italiano inglese (for Erasmus students)