INTERNATIONAL LAW

The course (International Law) will introduce students to public international law, covering principles and rules governing the interactions between States and other international actors (Part I), with a special focus on selected issues as specified in Part II.

Through the analysis of case studies, the course aims also at enhancing the students’ ability to deal with international practice and case-law, and to develop a critical approach towards current major debated issues.

Course Structure and Methodology

The course is taught through lectures and in-class discussions and is divided into two parts.

The general part (I) of the course introduces a global understanding of the core areas of public international law.

Part I:

• Introduction and Overview: the scope and nature of international law; Subjects, Sources and Guarantees of modern international law;
• How international law is made;
• States and the idea of international subjectivity;
• The contents of international norms;
• How international law is invoked and applied;
• International responsibility regimes.

The special part (II) of the course provides a focused analysis of legal and political dimensions of transnational law (a), of international institutional law (b) and of the use of force, wars and conflicts in the world today (c).

Part II

• Track (a) Transnational Law and Globalization: spaces, processes and actors of legal transnational issues: transnational law and global governance; supranational law between universality and regionalisms; the new lex mercatoria and the global economy; the proliferation of international/transnational courts and jurisdictions; extraterritoriality issues and the developments of international constitutionalism.
• Track (b) International Institutional Law | an introduction to the law of international organisations as political and legal actors in a complex transnational arena.

Track (c) Laws and Wars a collection of critical readings on the legal and political dimensions of the international use of force, humanitarian interventions, wars and post-war regulations, restorative and international justice to be analysed and commented in a multidisciplinary perspective.

Part I: B. Conforti, Diritto internazionale, Editoriale Scientifica, Napoli, 2015 (please only refer to the topics of the Course Structure /Program)

Part II: one track to be chosen between the following:

a) Transnational Law: M.R. Ferrarese, Diritto Sconfinato, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2006;

b) International Institutional Law: J. Klabbers, Advanced Introduction to the Law of International Organizations, Edward Elgar, Chentelham, UK, 2015;

c) Laws and Wars: D. Zolo, La giustizia dei vincitori: da Norimberga a Bagdad, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2012.

Materials

Relevant primary materials (treaties, resolutions, decisions of international courts et c) are freely available on line. Useful websites and suggested additional readings will be indicated for each topic through the on line Blackboard page Studium.