Course directory

F1GD 4230 - Public International Law (Lecture)

F1GD 4230 · Fall semester 2026-2027

Language of tuition
English
Course type
Cours magistral
Number of hours
24
Credits
6

Information

Description

***UPDATED for 2025/26***

This course offers an introduction to a range of core substantive fields within public international law and aims to equip students with the skills necessary to engage in an applied, critical legal analysis of international events and conflicts. Through active engagement with international legal jurisprudence, state practice and case studies, students should acquire a strong foundation in the fundamentals of the sources, doctrines and methods of international legal argumentation as well an understanding of the broader global context within which international law evolves and is implemented.

Learning Outcomes

  • master fundamental concepts of international law and how they are applied in international conflicts
  • engage with the political, historical, moral, and sociological contexts that impact the formation, implementation and adherence to international law
  • analyse international disputes and identify the underlying international legal issues, doctrines and concepts that emerge in significant disputes between states
  • understand alternative approaches to international law

Professional Skills

At the conclusion of this course students should:

  • possess a strong grounding in the sources of international legal obligation and the ways in which they are interpreted in state practice
  • utilize the standard methodology of international legal argumentation
  • formulate both oral and written international legal arguments that are supported by an informed use of principles, doctrines and precedents of international law and state practice
  • articulate complex legal and political arguments

Prerequisites

None

Assessment

Mid-Term Exam: 30 % written feedback and follow up office hours to discuss performance

Final Exam: 70% written feedback and follow up office hours to discuss performance

Workload

  • In Class Presence: 2 hours a week / 24 hours a semester
  • Reading and Preparation for Class: 9 hours /wk– 108 hours per semester
  • Research and Writing for Individual Assessments: 1.5 hours a week / 18 hours a semester

Readings

Main readings 3

  1. 1. D.J. Harris and S. Sivakumaran, Cases and Materials on International Law, 9th ed. (Sweet & Maxwell, 2020) (H & S)

  2. 2. Malcolm Shaw, International Law, 9th ed. (Cambridge 2020)

  3. 3. Rüdiger Wolfrum (ed), Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law (Oxford University Press, online edn, 2008–2020, print edn 2012) www.mpepil.com (to be used as a general reference source)

Further readings 14

  1. 1. B.S. Chimni, “A Just World Under Law: A View from the South”, (2006) 22 (2) Am. Univ. Int. LR 199

  2. 10. Responsibility to Protect: Report of the International Commission on Intervention

  3. 11. and State Sovereignty, International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, 2001.

  4. 12. A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility, Report of the Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, (A/59/565), United Nations, December 2004.

  5. 13. D. Brahma, S. Chakraborty, and A. Menokee, ‘The early days of a global pandemic- A timeline of COVID-19 spread and government interventions’ (2020) Brookings Institute

  6. 14. A.M. Slaughter, ‘Sovereignty and Power in a Networked World Order’ (2004) 40 Stanford J. Int. Law 283

  7. 2. S. Chesterman, “Asia’s Ambivalence about International Law and Institutions: Past, Present and Futures” (2017) 28 (1) EJIL 945-978

  8. 3. Anghie, Imperialism, Sovereignty and the Making of International Law (2005), chs 3-4

  9. 4. H. Charlesworth, C. Chinkin, and S. Wright, “Feminist Approaches to International Law”, (1991) 85 AJIL 613

  10. 5. S. Mahmoudi, “Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) (previously known as the Organization of the Islamic Conference)”, (2017) MPIL

  11. 6. P. Berman, ‘From International Law to Law and Globalization’ (2005) Col. J. Transnational L. 485

  12. 7. H. Charlesworth, C. Chinkin, and S. Wright, “Feminist Approaches to International Law”, (1991) 85 AJIL 613

  13. 8. Carsten Stahn, “Reckoning with Colonial Injustice: International law as culprit and as remedy? (2020) 33 Leiden Journal of International Law 823

  14. 9. M. Weller, ‘The International Response to the Dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia’, (1992) 86 AJIL 569

Teaching units

Unit no.Unit type Teaching unitsTeachers Number of hoursCredits
18065Cours magistral Public International Law (Lecture) Rosemary Ann BYRNE, Qiandai WANG246
18843Teaching assistant Public International Law (Lecture) Qiandai WANG160

Teachers

  • Rosemary Ann BYRNE
  • Qiandai WANG

In the curricula

Contacts and resources

Contact
CAPPELLE Elvedina