B6515 - INTERNATIONAL LAW DOCUMENTS READING

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

Based on the idea that international law can be construed as a language for international relations, the workshop aims at developing and strengthening the students’ ability to reading and understanding international law documents by developing the capacity to appreciate how the international legal discourse is structured and shaped in different contexts (decisions, opinions, legislative texts). At the end of the workshop, students will have acquired and refined the skills needed to comprehend complex technical texts, look for specific information and critically assess the materials examined

Contenuti

The workshop focuses on the reading and the analysis of international legislative texts, legal acts of international organizations (e.g. UN, Council of Europe and Nato) and decisions of international and national tribunals (e.g. International Court of Justice, European Court of Human Rights, international arbitral tribunals and national courts).

Drawing on the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict as a case study, the course will led students to grasp the meaning of legal terms employed in international law rules, to familiarize with the structuring of legal arguments and to conceptualize interpretation as a normative process.

 

Testi/Bibliografia

P. Allott, ‘Language, Method and the Nature of International Law’, British Yearbook of International Law 45 (1971), 79

H. Birkenkötter ‘International law as a common language across spheres of authority?’, 9(2) Global Constitutionalism, (2020), 318:https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/global-constitutionalism/article/international-law-as-a-common-language-across-spheres-of-authority/76FB87EE703860B4D4C04E634035A696

B. Conforti, ‘The Role of the Judge in International Law’, 1(2) European Journal of Legal. Studies (2007), 22: https://ejls.eui.eu/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2018/02/Benedetto-Conforti-The-Role-of-the-Judge-in-International-Law.pdf

D. Kritsiotis, ‘The Power of International Law as Language’, 34 California Western Law Review (1998), 397: https://scholarlycommons.law.cwsl.edu/cwlr/vol34/iss2/9

A. Kulick, 'From Problem to Opportunity? An Analytical Framework for Vagueness and Ambiguity in International Law' (2016) 59 German Yearbook of International Law 59 (2016), 257: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2917451

Metodi didattici

The workshop promotes an effective and empowering learning framework. In each class a brief conceptual introduction on the material previously assigned will provided by the instructor and then students will be required to actively participate in class by engaging in discussions and producing short written texts. 

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

Students that have attended at least 75% of classes will sit a written test aimed at verifying the level of understanding of the issues dealt with during the course. The test will be a reading comprehension test: students will be provided with a short legal text and then presented with 10 questions to be completed in 45 minutes (4 true or false statements, 4 multiple choice questions and 2 questions requiring written answers).

Strumenti a supporto della didattica

Slides, on-line app for classroom engagement, assignments on Virtuale.

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Francesca Ragno