| ACADEMIC PROGRAMMES
Academic Course Calendar 2008-2009
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HOME > Academic Programmes > Academic Course Calendar 2008 - 2009 > International Law and Human Rights
Department of Interantional Law and Human Rights
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| First Term August-December | |||
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| COURSES | PROFESSOR | CREDITS | DATE |
| Orientation | 20 Aug - 22 Aug. 2008 | ||
| PCS 6000
Foundation Course in Peace and Conflict Studies |
UPEACE Resident Faculty | 3 credits | 25 Aug - 12 Sep. 2008 |
| DIL 6030
Foundation Course in Public International Law |
Juan Amaya-Castro | 3 credits | 18 Sept - 7 Oct. 2008 |
| DIL 6035
Legal Research and Writing |
Natalia Riveros | 1 credit | 18 Sept - 23 Oct. 2008 |
| DIL 6031
United Nations and Other International Organizations |
Narinder Kakar & Visiting Professor (TBD) |
3 credits | 27 Oct. - 14 Nov. 2008 |
| DIL 6037
International Humanitarian Law |
TBD | 1 credit | 18 Nov. - 24 Nov. 2008 |
| DIL6032
Foundation Course in Human Rights Law |
Elizabeth Griffin | 3 credits | 27 Nov. - 17 Dec. 2008 |
| Second Term: International Law and Human Rights Programme1 January-May |
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| COURSES | PROFESSOR | CREDITS | DATE |
| Orientation for NRSD | 8 Jan. - 9 Jan. 2009 | ||
| ELECTIVES (UPEACE Institute) |
3 Credits | 12 Jan. - 30 Jan. 2009 | |
| DIL 6215
Global and Regional Mechanisms of Human Rights Protections |
Theo van Banning Joe Oloka-Onyago Olger Gonzalez |
4 credits | 2 Feb. - 11 Feb. 2009 |
| UPMUNC | 12 Feb. - 14 Feb. 2009 | ||
| DIL 6215
Global and Regional Mechanisms of Human Rights Protections |
Theo van Banning Joe Oloka-Onyago Olger Gonzalez |
16 Feb. - 3 Mar. 2009 | |
| DIL 6217
Transitional Justice and Human Rights |
Stephan Parmentier | 1 credit | 9 Mar.- 13 Mar. 2009 |
| DIL 6038
International Refugee Law |
Juan Carlos Murillo Federico Martínez |
1 credit | 16 Mar. - 20 Mar. 2009 |
| DIL 6260
Human Rights and Gender |
TBD | 2 credits | 24 Mar. - 3 Apr. 2009 |
| Easter Break | 6 Apr. - 10 APr, 2009 | ||
| DIL 6270
International Protection of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights |
TBD | 3 credits | 13 Apr. - 30 Apr. 2009 |
| DIL 6214
Human Rights Monitoring and Reporting |
Elizabeth Griffin | 1 credit | 4 May - 8 May 2009 |
| DIL 6250
Human Rights and the HIV/AIDS Crisis |
Hassan El Menyawi | 1 credit | 13 May - 19 May 2009 |
| DIL 7100
Independent Studies Paper |
8 credits | Due 26 June 2009 | |
1 Dates are subject to change
**Note: afternoon sessions for the course International Law and Human Rights students to be scheduled by the course instructor
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Second Term: International Law and Settlement of Disputes2 January - May |
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|---|---|---|---|
| COURSES | PROFESSOR | CREDITS | DATE |
| Orientation for NRSD | 8 Jan. - 9 Jan. 2009 | ||
| ELECTIVES (UPEACE Institute) |
3 Credits | 12 Jan. - 30 Jan. 2009 | |
| DIL 6150
Alternative Dispute Resolution in International Relations |
Noam Ebner | 2 credits | 2 Feb. - 11 Feb. 2009 |
| UPMUNC | 12 Feb. - 14 Feb. 2009 | ||
| DIL 6170
International Law, Trade and Development |
Helena Alviar | 3 credits | 16 Feb. - 4 Mar. 2009 |
| DIL 6217
Transitional Justice and Human Rights |
Stephan Parmentier | 1 credit | 9 Mar. - 13 Mar. 2009 |
| DIL 6038
International Refugee Law |
Juan Carlos Murillo Federico Martínez |
1 credit | 16 Mar. - 20 Mar. 2009 |
| DIL 6110
The Use of Force and Peacekeeping in International Law |
Elizabeth Griffin | 2 credits | 24 Mar. - 3 Apr. 2009 |
| Easter Break | 6 Apr. - 10 APr, 2009 | ||
| DIL 6160
International & Transnational Adjudication |
Basak Cali | 3 credits | 13 Apr. - 30 Apr. 2009 |
| DIL 6130
International Law of the Sea |
TBD | 1 credit | 7 May - 15 May 2009 |
| DIL 7100
Independent Studies Paper |
8 credits | Due 26 June 2009 | |
2 Dates are subject to change
**Note: afternoon sessions for the course International Law and Human Rights students to be scheduled by the course instructor
Common Courses:
PCS 6000
Foundation Course in Peace and Conflict Studies
The course is designed to engage students in an examination of the major contemporary challenges to peace, sources of conflict and violence, and several key nonviolent mechanisms for conflict transformation and prevention. The course provides a common foundation for UPEACE students from all M.A. programmes. During the course, an understanding of the complex and interconnected challenges to peace will be developed, as will an understanding of the need for multi-faceted approaches to meet these challenges. Participants in the course will engage critically with various theories of conflict and violence. They will develop their understandings of the theoretical resources available in the area of peace and conflict studies as well as their capacity for putting theory into practice. The foundation course provides an opportunity to explore connections, sympathies, and synergies between the challenges and approaches identified in many different disciplines from a “wide-angle” perspective that will encourage students to continue making interdisciplinary connections and analyses throughout and after their tenure at UPEACE. Back to top
DIL 6030
Foundation Course in Public International Law
The course provides a basic introduction to the field of international law, and is oriented towards the experience of international law practitioners in the application of international law to the resolution of international disputes. It centres on the work within the United Nations on the codification and progressive development of international law, in particular within the framework of the International Law Commission.
The course deals, inter alia, with the nature and sources of international law, the recognition of States and Governments, jurisdiction, State responsibility, the law of the sea, international criminal law, the law of treaties and the peaceful settlement of international disputes. The course content will be coordinated with other courses in the Masters Programmes, and only introductory treatment will be given of the fields of human rights, international organizations, international economic disputes and international environmental law. Back to top
DIL 6031
Foundation Course in The United Nations and Other International Organizations
This course offers a general introduction to the law and practice of international organizations, with a particular focus on the United Nations (UN). The course builds on the previous Foundation Course on Public International Law, and has an emphasis on the legal dimension, both internal and external, of international organizations. What is the legal framework in which international organizations are created, and under which they operate? How do they form an internal legal order of their own, and to what extent are they distinct from their member states? Because of the very large number of international organizations that currently exist; it focuses on the common features, on the structural features that most organizations share. Even so, the course gives special attention to one of the most developed international organizations, the European Union (EU), and will devote a third of its time to the United Nations and its main activities in the field of peace and security, economic and social development, human rights and peace keeping operations, as well as the Millennium Development Goals. One part of the course will take place in the shape of a participation in the University for Peace Model United Nations Conference (UPMUNC). Back to top
DIL 6032 Foundation course in Human Rights Law
This course is meant to provide an overview of the basic conceptions of human rights and of international human rights law. It provides a set of basic definitions of each of these concepts, attempting to demonstrate the links between them, as well as their potential interchangeability. The course begins with an introduction of the core concepts that the course is named after, followed by an examination of the viability and challenges of achieving human rights goals in varying parts of the world, and perhaps even at a more global level. The course will attempt to weave together how issues such as national and international governance interrelate with human rights, both promoting and interfering with the achievement of human rights goals/causes, and effecting social change.
When examining the possibilities of achieving human rights, the course will explore how national governance, both democratic and authoritarian, can both be potential vehicles and interrupters of human rights, interposing themselves as intermediaries in current world politics. The course will also explore how increasing interdependencies between nations, often referred to as “globalization,” has effected the potential achievement of human rights goals. Back to top
DIL 6035 Legal Research and Writing
This course is designed to build a foundation in research and writing in law. The course will develop the students’ necessary competencies for the required course: Independent Studies Paper (DIL 7100). The course will give the students an introduction to legal research methods and writing. Approaches to case reading and briefing will also be presented in addition to developing students’ legal research skills. Presentation and oral argument skills will be taught and practiced throughout the course. The course will continue with examining treaty drafting through analyzing treaties in international law and human rights. Developing writing skills will be a major aspect of the course, which will culminate in writing a legal memorandum that incorporates basic research, writing, and advocacy skills. The course will conclude with a moot court exercise based on a real-life scenario. Back to top
DIL 6037 International Humanitarian Law
This course provides an overview of the field of international humanitarian law (also known as the law of armed conflict and laws of war). It deals inter alia with its origins, purpose, sources and principles, development and its application and effects on armed conflicts. The course also looks into the work of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and its mandate in the Geneva Conventions and discusses the challenges in applying and enforcing international humanitarian law to contemporary conflicts. Back to top
DIL 6038 International Refugee Law
This course provides a basic framework of international refugee law, policy and practice. The course focuses on the institutional framework of refugee protection and its relationship to the broader human rights system. The Course will be taught by a training group comprised by staff members of the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR) office in San José. Back to top
DIL 6217 Transitional Justice and Human Rights The course seeks to provide the students with analytical tools to grapple with and to discuss the most salient issues decision-makers are facing in the context of transitional democracies and other situations of dealing with the past. By the end of the course, students should be able to understand these issues, to have a good grip on their conceptual and societal implications, and to know the relevant normative legal framework. Moreover, they should be able to analyze and assess specific transitional policies and measures in the light of a multitude of constraints. Back to top
Specialized Courses Human Rights Programme
DIL 6214 Human Rights Monitoring and Reporting
Effective human rights advocacy is based upon the collection, analysis and presentation of reliable and precise information. The ability to accurately document and report on general human rights situations and individual violations is a key skill that underpins the work of human rights professionals. The aim of this course is to provide students with an insight into the monitoring and reporting techniques used by NGOs, IGOs, national human rights institutions and international human rights bodies. The course aims to enable students to develop skills relevant to their future careers as human rights professionals. The course will be taught by way of group discussions, role play and simulated exercises. Back to top
DIL 6215 Global and Regional Human Rights Systems
This course will examine the global and regional human rights systems. The part of the course on the global human rights system will treat in detail the main elements of the United Nations system, as contrasted to the regional mechanisms. The course will examine the regional human rights systems in the Americas, Europe, and Africa. The course will then review the supervision and implementation of human rights norms within the global system. It will deal extensively with standard setting within the United Nations system, in particular the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In each case both procedural as well as substantive aspects of enforcement and implementation mechanisms will be addressed. Back to top
DIL 6250 Human Rights and the HIV/AIDS Crisis
This course is a specialized course examining the human rights dimensions of HIV/AIDS. Now a global pandemic, HIV/AIDS has come to the attention of varying international organizations and is being increasingly seen as a threat to nation-states around the world. In light of critical global trends and developments, the question of how human rights interact with the HIV/AIDS pandemic becomes a crucial issue. The objective of this course is to open new spaces to examine the linkages between HIV/AIDS and human rights. Back to top
DIL 6260 Human Rights, Gender and Religion
The course traces the arguments used by feminists within the international women’s movement to claim women’s rights as human rights, and the debates that such strategy has prompted both in relation to the universal/particular dichotomy and in relation to the efficacy of rights for the transformation of subordination. Indeed, while the accusation of an “incomplete” or “defective” universal has been key to the positioning of women’s issues as human rights’ related, the very attempt to fit into the universal has been highly contested both within the feminism that dominates the international debate (American Feminism) and by self proclaimed “third world” scholars that understand such claims to universality as threats to the local/ethnic groups to which they belong. On the other hand, the emphasis on rights as tools for the transformation of deep-rooted structures has been criticized for underestimating the problematic of rights indeterminacy and overestimating the coercive power of international legal rules.
The course also explores the complex and vexing intersection of human rights, gender, and religion – three of some of the most urgent questions of our time. The course draws material from a wide range of scholars and activists to interrogate this chasm, and to suggest critical ways of thinking about reducing powerlessness. In so doing, it examines the challenges of making cross-cultural judgments and crafting a more universal consensus Back to top
DIL 6270 International Protection of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
This course seeks to outline how the contemporary challenges to human rights can be thematisized. As the various ‘challenges’ to human rights are numerous, and as the course is of limited duration, an exhaustive (and exhausting) topic-by-topic treatment of all such ‘challenges’ is not a viable option. Instead, the course will attempt to develop a systematic approach to the question of ‘challenges’ by identifying different types of challenges, by illustrating how they are experienced in different concrete contexts, and by reflecting on whether and how they can be dealt with. Back to top
Integrative Course for International Law and Human Rights Students: The objective of this course is to analyze and discuss contemporary challenges to international law and human rights by incorporating and integrating the various areas of law and topics discussed in the courses offered by the Department. The course has a strong online-research and discussion component, combined with in- class guiding sessions and discussions.
Specialized Courses Settlement of Disputes Programme:
DIL 6110 The Use of Force and International Peacekeeping
The aim of this course is to provide students with an in-depth understanding of the international legal regime governing the use of force and UN peace support operations. By the end of the course students should be able to analyze the legality of various acts involving the use of force by reference to the sources of international law. Students should also have gained a detailed understanding of challenges faced by UN peacekeeping. Back to top
DIL 6150 Alternative Dispute Resolution in International Relations
This course is an introductory skill-building course in negotiation, conflict management and resolution. Participants learn to improve their own negotiation skills, helping them to act consciously and skillfully in tough situations. This introduction will also help participants to understand how negotiations fall apart, and how conflict forms. The course explores the spectrum of third-party intervention methods, showing how these processes are implemented and institutionalized on the inter-personal level as well as in the international sphere. The course explores the difference between processes in which parties surrender their decision-making autonomy to a third-party, and those in which they retain this power and the third-party must find ways to assist them to exercise it on their own. Substantial time is dedicated to understanding and experimenting with the process of mediation, in which a third -party, lacking decision-imposing power, uses his negotiation expertise, his creativity and his relationship with the parties, in order to aid them in reaching agreement and transforming their relationship. By understanding the design and management methods of the mediation process, participants will be able to bring their improved negotiation skills to bear in assisting others to negotiate and resolve conflicts peacefully. Back to top
DIL 6160 International and Transnational Adjudication
The Course has a dual objective. First, to provide an overview of the complex landscape of judicial resolution of international disputes, by looking at the institutions, structures, and principles that govern the field. Second, to critically assess the fundamental assumptions that underscore contemporary debates on international dispute settlement. The opening lectures of the course will situate international adjudication in the matrix of available international dispute resolution mechanisms and will explore the images of international adjudication present in contemporary academic literature. Subsequent lectures will turn to ‘legal procedure’, as one of the features distinguishing judicial from diplomatic or political means of dispute settlement and will take a close look at the assumptions underlying this distinction. At the end of the course the students will become familiar with crucial adjudicatory bodies, such as the International Court of Justice, and discuss contemporary trends and problems in international dispute settlement, from extraterritorial jurisdiction to ‘transitional justice’ and the proliferation of international tribunals. Back to top
DIL 6170 International Law, Trade and Development
The main objective of this course will be to understand the international evolution of ideas about development as well as the relationship between law and development. The course analyzes in detail two broad issues. First of all, it looks into how the definition of development has shifted through time, how this definition has influenced national and transnational debates and what role have domestic and international law played. Building on these concepts the course then focuses on a topic that crystallizes these ideas about development, national and international law: Trade Law. Therefore, in the second part of the course participants will examine the general structure of the WTO system, its main elements, as well as the basic debates that characterize the field. Back to top
DIL 6130 International Law of the Sea
The Course aims to cover all substantive aspects of the law of the sea, but with emphasis on the resolution of disputes which can arise in the various sectors. Thus, it will cover the legal regime in all the various jurisdictional zones in the oceans, and the uses of the seas for navigation, commerce and resource exploitation, including in the International Seabed Area. Back to top
Integrative Course for International Law and the Settlement of Dispute Students
The objective of this course is to analyze and discuss contemporary challenges to international law and the settlement of disputes by incorporating and integrating the various areas of law and topics discussed in the courses offered by the Department. The course has a strong online-research and discussion component, combined with in- class guiding sessions and discussions. Back to top
Resident Faculty
Juan Amaya-Castro (Doctorandus Public International Law, Leiden University) is Deputy Head of the International Law and Human Rights Program and Assistant Professor at the University for Peace. Prior to his involvement with the University for Peace, and while working on his PH.D dissertation at Erasmus University, he lectured on both international law and human rights at various Dutch universities. He was also Visiting Researcher with the European Law Research Center at Harvard Law School. He has been a member of several editorial boards, including the Leiden Journal of International Law and the Board of the Stichting NJCM-Boekerij. For several years he worked as correspondent on the European Court of Human Rights for the NJCM-Bulletin. He is the co-founder and Secretary of the Foundation for New Research in International Law (FNRIL). Back to top
Elizabeth Griffin (B.A London, LL.M Essex) is Director of the Human Rights Centre and Adjunct Associate Professor at the University for Peace. She has extensive experience as an academic and human rights practitioner investigating and reporting on human rights violations. She has worked for the United Nations (initially at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and then with the United Nations Mission in Kosovo), and as a Researcher for Amnesty International in Afghanistan and Kosovo. Prior to joining the University for Peace Elizabeth worked as a Lecturer in International Human Rights Law at the University of Essex, UK. Back to top
Natalia Riveros (M.A International Law and Settlement of Disputes, University for Peace; M.A International Relations, International University of Japan) is the Executive Coordinator of the Human Rights Centre. She is also an Instructor in the Department of International Law and Human Rights. Before joining the University for Peace she was teaching international law at the Espíritu Santo University in Ecuador and worked as correspondent for the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants for the World Refugee Survey 2005 and 2006. She also worked as Law Clerk at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Back to top
Visiting Faculty
Narinder Kakar (India) Executive Director, Upeace New York Office Back to top
"Noam Ebner (Israel) is a partner in a law firm as well as director of the Tachlit Mediation & Negotiation Center. Besides teaching at Tel-Hai College in Israel, he holds regular positions as a visiting professor at Sabanci University in Turkey and at the UN’s University for Peace in Costa Rica. In addition, Noam has conducted mediation and negotiation training in various other locations across the globe, working with court systems, international organizations, corporations, managers and students from a wide variety of fields. His teaching focuses on the practical side of negotiation and conflict management in business, legal and international disputes. Noam has mediated a wide range of disputes and specializes in negotiation and mediation conducted online. He has published several simulation-games as well as articles on negotiation pedagogy and online dispute resolution. Back to top
Theo R.G. van Banning (Netherlands) holds a M.A in Administrative Law and a Ph.D. in International Law from Utrecht University. He co-authored the Human Rights Education Project materials used in the human rights courses of UPEACE. He was the Human Rights Co-coordinator at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Nineties. Since then he has been stationed in the Netherlands embassies abroad, including in Costa Rica. He is presently the Deputy Permanent Representative of the Netherlands to the United Nations organizations in Rome (FAO, WFP and IFAD). Back to top
Olger I. González Espinoza (Costa Rica) is a staff coordinator attorney at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, where he has worked for seven years in various positions. He currently coordinates one of the six working groups of the Court’s permanent Registry. Olger completed his Master’s Degree in Human Rights and Democratization (E.MA. European Master, in Venice and Strasbourg), a diploma on transitional justice, human rights and democratization at the University of Chile and earned his law degree from the University of Costa Rica. He has followed various human rights specialized courses, completed a Professional Visit to the European Court of Human Rights 2004) and participated in an OAS electoral observation mission (Guatemala, 2007). He has lectured on the Inter-American system issues in several institutions, both in Costa Rica and abroad, such as the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights (San José), the University for Peace (San José). Back to top
Stephan Parmentier (Belgium) studied law, political science and sociology at the K.U Leuven (Belgium), and sociology and conflict resolution at the Humphrey Institute for Public Affairs, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (U.S.A.). He currently teaches sociology of crime, law, and human rights at the Faculty of Law of the K.U.Leuven, where he has been heading the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology since 2005. Back to top
Dr. Oloka-Onyango (Uganda) is a Professor of Law and the Director of the Human Rights and Peace Centre (HURIPEC) at Makerere University in Uganda. He was Dean of Law at the Faculty from 1998-2002, and has been Visiting Professor at a number of universities around the world, including New York University School of Law, Harvard Law School, and the University of Minnesota School of Law, in the United States, and at Cape Town and Pretoria Universities in South Africa. Back to top
Hassan El Menyawi (Egypt) (B.sc. Psychology, McGill University; LL.M International Law, Osgoode Hall Law School; LL.B (common law) and B.C.L (civil law) McGill University) is Assistant Professor in the Department of International Law and Human Rights at the University for Peace. He was a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Before his appointment at Harvard Law School, he was teaching human rights at York University. He is the co-founder and associate editor of the Muslim World Journal of Human Rights. Hassan is currently Distinguished Kemp Visiting Professor at Davidson College on a leave of absence from his post at the University for Peace. Back to top
Dr. Basak Cali (Turkey) is Acting Director of the MA in Human Rights and Lecturer at University College London and a Senior Fellow of UPeace. She holds a Ph.D. in International Law from the University of Essex. Dr Çali has worked on theories of global governance, the role of human rights and humanitarianism in international law and transnational human rights adjudication.
Helena Alviar (Colombia) Doctorate (SJD) in Economic Law and Gender, and an LL.M., both from Harvard University; Director Masters Programme in Law, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia where she teaches “the Theory of Private Law”, “The Theory of Public Law”, “Legal Theory”, “Law and Development”, and "Administrative Law ". Back to top
Training Group from UNHCR:
Federico Martínez (Costa Rica) Associate Legal Officer, Regional Legal Unit, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Back to top
Juan Carlos Murillo (Costa Rica) Senior Legal Adviser, Head of the Regional Legal Unit of the Americas Bureau, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Back to top