LAW 6561 - International Human Rights

Fall. 3 credits. Student option grading.

M. Ndulo.

International Human Rights Law and Institutions seeks to promote and secure for the individual protection of an array of agreed rights in his/her national society. The individual will turn to international law and institutions in order to enhance support for and to vindicate his/her rights under national law. The objective of the course is to introduce the student to the theory, norms, and institutions central to the international human rights legal regime. The course will explore the emergence and the enforcement of international human rights norms, the international machinery for the protection of human rights in the world community including the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the European Court of Human Rights, the African Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and the International Criminal Court. Relevant decisions of these courts and of municipal courts will be studied as well as basic documents. It will also examine domestic mechanisms for the enforcement of international human rights against foreign violators through for example, the Alien Tort Claims Act and the Torture Victim Protection Act. It will further examine the liability of corporations for human rights violations.