Multilateral treaties provide the backbone of the international legal system.  Despite achieving high rates of ratification, their implementation has often been incomplete.  Nowhere is this situation more evident than in developing countries.  Many countries lack needed institutional, financial, or human capacity to ensure adherence to their treaty obligations.  Understanding the conditions under which states’ treaty implementation can be improved is a critical element to raising observance of international law and furthering key development objectives.  Key issues covered in the course include:

• implications for international treaty law of socio-legal Law and Development research on legal and institutional reform processes, particularly in relation to the question of the endogeneity of those processes
• practices among multilateral treaties to integrate national treaty implementation strategies with the international development assistance architecture, particularly through national development strategies
• approaches to “mainstreaming” treaty obligations into national strategies, planning, and budgeting, particularly through the human rights-based approach to development 
• methodologies for translating treaty obligations into national budgets, examples from the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
• practical impediments to implementing varied treaty obligations simultaneously
• legal standards and practical issues relating to treaty implementation at the subnational level
• the role of domestic political and legal forces, including mass publics and public interest litigation, in driving treaty implementation
• the role of private voluntary regulatory schemes and company compliance practices in achieving treaty standards.

At the end of the course, students will:

• understand the full process of national treaty implementation involving a range of multilateral accords
• gain an understanding of the social, economic, legal, and political factors affecting national treaty implementation
• analyze the role that implementing treaty obligations plays in processes of legal reform and development
• be able to advise governments on designing legal, institutional, and development strategies and programs in ways that advance treaty implementation.

The proposed scheme of assessment will be:

• a reflective reading journal, due shortly after the end of the teaching period.  Students will be required to make a number of short journal entries reflecting on the readings.  They will be required to discuss how what they read makes sense (or otherwise) and how it relates to what they are learning in lectures, in the wider media, and in other contexts (such as their workplace); and
• a large research assignment, due within two months after the teaching period.  This is designed to test socio-legal analytical skills and research capacity, as developed through the course. The assignment topics will be based on the reading materials, which will be the subject of semi-structured discussions in the classroom.  Students may also determine their own assignment topic after consultation and approval by the course convenor.

Details will be made available in the Means of Assessment approximately 6 weeks before the commencement of the course.

Intensive delivery over 4 full days.

General development assistance issues.  A knowledge of international law and human rights would be helpful but not essential.

There would be no prerequisites.

General development assistance issues.  A knowledge of international law and human rights would be helpful but not essential.

Reading Materials prepared by the lecturer. Details will be provided in the Course Outline 6 weeks before the commencement of the course.

Students will need access to the  internet to complete this course.