ODEC 9020 - Case Studies in Armed Conflicts and Global Security Law

The course offers an opportunity to reflect on the legal governance of violence, war and security and their regulation from a critical perspective. It draws on international law, international humanitarian law, human rights law, law and technology, as well as legal theory. It is intended for anyone interested in armed conflicts and security, human rights and the transformation of law and governance in relation to globalization and technology.

The course will be divided in two parts. The first part – which will be taught by Delphine Dogot – will map the evolutions and projects of war governance in the course of the 20th century through the analysis and critique of core legal distinctions such as jus ad bellum/in bello, international/non-international conflict and civilian/combatant. During that first part, we will investigate how previous understandings of the legal governance of violence influence and structure current debates about war and global security.

The second part of the course – which will be taught by Jérôme de Hemptinne – will be devoted to specific controversial issues of the regulation of wars, such as: cyber warfare; involvement of ‘unlawful combatants’; protection of the environment; targeting and detention in non-international armed conflicts. They will be presented in light of the conceptual debates analyzed during the first part of the course and of concreted examples drawn from recent armed conflicts (Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Libya, Syria, Yemen, etc.).

The class is conceived as a critical discussion of the assigned readings. It reverses the traditional learning environment in which you come to class to passively absorb knowledge. In this course, the objective is for you to participate in each and every class with insights extracted from the readings. It will allow us to go much further in the analysis. The class starts by a presentation of the topic analyzed. An informed discussion will then take place based on a critical analysis of the assigned reading materials.

Students will be evaluated on the basis of their knowledge and understanding of what has been taught and discussed during the seminars as well as the documents provided to them on that occasion.

Readings will be assigned each week and will be available in the Google Drive folder of our course. Readings are generally scholarly articles or book excerpts but students may also be asked to watch a video at home or to visit a specific website.

Students are expected to read and reflect on these readings each week and come informed with their thoughts in class.