This course will analyse in detail the norms and regimes established at the international, regional and domestic levels to protect and promote human rights. Since World War II, human rights have developed as an authoritative source of law and as the foundation of a broad and proliferating range of international institutions.

This course will explore the history and background of this momentous change in our moral, political and legal frameworks. It examines the key dilemmas facing the international law of human rights: Where do human rights come from? How do they constrain the behavior of states? Are there rights to social goods, like health and development? Should human rights be derogated from? Is there an evolving law against torture? What are the dangers of “human rights imperialism”? What international institutions are most effective in promoting human rights?

The course examines the indivisible and interdependent categories of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. It considers the international enforcement and implementation mechanisms available to states and individuals in the event of a violation of a human rights obligation. It also examines the impact of human rights on domestic laws, in both judicial and legislative domains, in Australia and elsewhere.

This course is concerned with efforts at both the international and domestic levels to establish legal norms to protect human rights. It will draw on case studies to highlight the legal, as well as the political, economic, social, cultural and moral challenges that confront activists, policy-makers and lawyers in various contexts. A participant who has successfully completed this course should be able to:

• describe, locate and evaluate international human rights law;
• describe, justify and critique different theories about rights;
• identify and analyse the structure of the global and regional human rights systems;
• identify and analyse the modes of domestic incorporation of human rights;
• describe and evaluate different mechanisms for the implementation and enforcement of international human rights law;
• 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)

LAWS8182 / LAWS8256 Principles of International Law

Henry J. Steiner, Philip Alston and Ryan Goodman, International Human Rights in Context: Law, Politics, Morals (Oxford University Press., 3d ed, 2008)

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