This course will analyse in detail the norms and regimes established at the international and regional levels to protect and promote human rights. It will trace the growth of international human rights law from its beginnings as part of the law of minority rights and diplomatic protection through to the proliferation of human rights instruments and bodies which followed in the wake of the atrocities of the WWII.

The course will explore contemporary challenges facing the international system, ‘cultural relativity', the ‘war on terror' and the accountability of non-state actors for human rights violations. We will analyse the efficacy of the UN Charter as well as universal and regional Treaty bodies. After a thorough discussion of the problems of normativity and universality of human rights law, we will proceed to analyse the different legal regimes and the nature of international human rights obligations. Detailed analysis will be given to the question of permissible derogations and limitations to the international protection of human rights. Whilst noting the development of key ‘third generation' rights, the focus will be on the main civil and political rights proclaimed by international human rights treaties and an examination of the case law concerning those rights. Finally the course will consider the enforcement mechanisms available to States and individuals in the event of a violation of a human rights obligation with a special emphasis on the procedure and the admissibility of individual claims before International Human Rights Courts (such as the European Court of Human Rights) and other international treaty bodies (such as the Human Rights Committee).

As noted, this course is concerned with the efforts at the international level to establish legal norms to protect human rights. It includes studies of both the theories justifying the protection of human rights and the institutions and supervisory mechanisms designed to protect those rights in international law.

In light of our focus on these norms and institutions, and the political, social, economic and cultural environments in which they operate, a participant who has successfully completed this course should be able to:

• describe, locate and evaluate international human rights law;
• describe and evaluate different theories about rights;
• identify, analyse and describe the structure of the global and regional human rights systems;
• describe and evaluate different mechanisms for the implementation and enforcement of international human rights law; and
• analyse and apply international human rights law to contemporary issues.

Students must rely on the Approved Assessment which will be posted to the course homepage on the ANU Law website, prior to the commencement of the course.

26 Contact Hours (Intensive Delivery)

Click here for the 2010 timetable

LAWS8182 / LAWS8256 Principles of International Law