Public International Law
Readings
Spring 2025
Salvatore Caserta
Course Description:
This course examines the basic concepts of public international law, to enable students to critically evaluate the interplay between legal claims and power relations. Starting with a theoretical overview of the character, development and sources of international law, the course examines such law-generating and law-implementing institutions as the United Nations, international arbitration and adjudication, international criminal tribunals, national systems and regional organizations. Such substantive areas as the law of war (the use of force and humanitarian law), international criminal law, human rights, and environmental law will be given special attention.
Summary of Course Content:
This course explores how the international legal system works from a legal and political perspective, shaping international relations today. The course develops the students’ ability to identify, analyze and work with international legal issues in a competent legal manner. It provides the students with the necessary skills needed to recognize matters of international law as well as the ability to relate more broadly to issues of an international character.
The course covers the most relevant topics of public international law, such as foundations and structures of international, sources of international law, the actors in the international legal system, the principles of jurisdiction and diplomatic protection, state responsibility, the peaceful settlement of disputes, the international regulation of the use of force, and the law of armed conflict. The course also branches out to some sister disciplines such as international criminal law and human rights.
Learning Outcomes:
The objective of the course is to enable the students to:
- Identify the main institutions and topics in the field of public international law.
- Identify, explain, and critically discuss the main theoretical and practical issues related to the emergence of forms of international governance and laws.
- Communicate their knowledge and formulate arguments in a structured and coherent way.
The teaching provides the students with the skills needed to establish an independent and critical attitude to concrete issues of international law and to relate, in a balanced and reflective manner, to the inherent tensions of international law and to the borderline between politics and law.
Attendance is compulsory. Students shall read assigned materials before classes and shall participate to class discussions.
Type of Assessment:
- Assigned individual written assignment, 1 day: 40%
- Midterm written assignment: 30%
- In class exercises/group works: 20%
- Class participation: 10%
Week 1 – What is International Law? Introduction and Historical Overview
Mandatory Readings:
- Jan Klabbers, International Law, Ch. 1.
- Excerpts from Anthonie Anghie, Imperialism, Sovereignty, and the Making of International Law, Cambridge University Press 2004.
Class 1: Introduction and historical developments
Class 2: Institutional framework, the functions, and the limitations of international Law
Week 2 – The Sources of International Law: Treaties and Customs
Mandatory Readings:
- Jan Klabbers, International Law, Ch. 2 & 3.
- Excerpts from LaGrand.
- Excerpts from ICTY, Trial Chamber, Prosecutor v Anto Furundžija, judgement of 10 December 1998, paras 147-157.
- Excerpts from House of Lords (UK), R. v Bow Street Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate and others, ex parte Pinochet Ugarte (No. 3), judgement of 24 March 1999 [2000] A.C. 147.
Class 1: The law of the treaties and the principles of interpretation.
Class 2: International customs, jus cogens, and other sources.
Week 3 – The Actors of International Law: Statehood
Mandatory Readings:
- Jan Klabbers, International Law, Ch. 4.
- Excerpts from ICJ advisory opinion on Kosovo.
Class 1: What is a state? The Montevideo Convention applied to the case of Palestine.
Class 2: Self-determination and recognition – The case of Kosovo.
Week 4 – Jurisdiction and Sovereignty
Mandatory Readings:
- James Crawford, Brownlie’s Principles of Public International Law (8th edition), Chapter 22.
- Excerpts from Arrest Warrant case.
Class 1: Jurisdiction and acquisition of sovereignty.
Class 2: The exercise of universal jurisdiction.
Week 5 – Immunities of Foreign States and Consular Relations
Mandatory Readings:
- Anders Henriksen, International Law, Ch 6.
- Excerpts from Hostages case
Class 1: General principles.
Class 2: The Hostages case.
Week 6 – International Dispute Settlement and the ICJ
Mandatory Readings:
- Jan Klabbers, International Law, Ch. 8.
- Excerpts from Nicaragua and Avena cases.
Class 1: The International Court of Justice – institutional structure and jurisprudential developments.
Class 2: The International Court of Justice -- jurisdiction and implementation.
Week 7 – Regional Organizations and Other International Courts
Mandatory Readings:
- Karen Alter, The New Terrain of International Law: Courts, Politics, Rights, Ch. 1 and 4.
Class 1: The global spread of international courts and the diffusion of European model.
Class 2: Regional courts in Europe, Latin America and Africa,
Week 8 – State Responsibility
Mandatory Readings:
- Jan Klabbers, International Law, Ch. 7.
- Excerpts from Hostages and Rainbow Warrior (PCA) cases.
Class 1: General principles.
Class 2: Jurisprudential developments.
Week 9 – The International Regulation of the Use of Force
Mandatory Readings:
- Jan Klabbers, International Law, Ch. 9 and 10.
Class 1: General principles.
Class 2: Case study.
Week 10 – The Law of Armed Conflicts
Mandatory Readings:
- Jan Klabbers, International Law, Ch. 11.
- Excerpts from the ICJ advisory opinion on nuclear weapons.
Class 1: General principles
Class 2: Nuclear weapons, drones and target killings
Week 11 – International Criminal Law and the ICC
Mandatory Readings:
- Jan Klabbers, International Law, Ch. 12.
- Leslie Vinjamuri: The International Criminal Court and the Paradox of Authority, 79 Law and Contemporary Problems (2016).
Class 1: The history of international criminal law and the ICC.
Class 2: The backlash against the ICC and recent developments.
Week 12 – International Human Rights Law as Public International Law
Mandatory Readings:
- Anders Henriksen, International Law, Ch. 9
- Eyal Benvenisti, Margin of Appreciation, Consensus, and Universal Standards, 31 New York University Journal of International Law and Politics (1999)
Class 1: Institutional framework.
Class 2: The European Court of Human Rights and the margin of appreciation.
Week 13 – UN Human Rights Organs and their Contributions
Mandatory Readings:
- J Connors, ‘United Nations’ in Moeckli et al (eds) International Human Rights Law (3rd edn, 2018) Oxford University Press 369-403.
- Rieter, Eva. "The International Court of Justice and Its Contribution to Human Rights Law: Final Report of the ILA International Human Rights Law Committee (Part 1)." Judging International Human Rights: Courts of General Jurisdiction as Human Rights Courts (2019): 19-50.
- Excepts from ICJ, Adv. Op. on LEGAL CONSEQUENCES ARISING FROM THE POLICIES AND PRACTICES OF ISRAEL IN THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY, INCLUDING EAST JERUSALEM, 19-07-1984
Class 1: UN Charter Organs and Human Rights.
Class 2: The Contribution of the ICJ to the Development of Human Rights – The Advisory Opinion on Palestine.
Week 14 – Contemporary Issues: Western Centrism of International Law and Overcoming Fragmentation
Mandatory Reading:
- S Caserta. “Western Centrism, Contemporary International Law, and International Courts” 34 Leiden Journal of International Law 2 (2021), pp. 321-342.
- S Caserta & MR Madsen, Caserta, Salvatore, and Mikael Madsen. "When the Sun, the Moon and the Stars Align: Litigating LGBTQI Rights and the Death Penalty in East Africa and the Caribbean." European Journal of International Law (2024).
Class 1: Backlash against international law and institutions.
Class 2: Beyond fragmentation of international law: litigating human rights in multilevel judicial systems.
- Instructor: Salvatore Caserta