Human Rights Law in Context

Knowledge

After having completed this course the student will have:

• a good understanding of a selection of civil, political, equality, socio-economic, and collective, human rights
• knowledge about the historical and political background of the selected rights
• knowledge about philosophical debates and problems relating to the rights
• knowledge about the recognition and interpretation of the rights in international and comparative law
• knowledge about potential and actual conflicts between different rights

Skills

After having completed this course the student will be able to:

• assess substantive human rights from different disciplinary perspectives
• identify different rights and debate their respective justifications
• assess how substantive human rights are interpreted and applied in practice
• present oral and written arguments about human rights, using different methods

General competence

After having completed this course the student will be able to:

• assess the relationship between legal and non-legal perspectives on human rights
• assess the effectiveness of human rights law in a societal context

Students must fill one of these requirements:

• Passed 1st - 3rd year of the 5-years degree Master of Laws (Master i rettsvitenskap at UiO) (or exams that qualify for exemption for these) or
• Hold a 5-years Master¿s degree in Laws (Master i rettsvitenskap at UiO) or equivalent.

Starting Autumn 2013 exception from the formal prerequisites will be given only to students on the faculty's exchange programmes, and not to students with admission to other Master`s programmes at the University of Oslo.

Students at UiO must apply for courses in StudentWeb.

International applicants, if you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures for international applicants.

You may register for this course if you have admission to a Master's programme at UiO. All applicants must fill the formal prerequisites.
Priority is given to students on the Master of Philosophy programme in the Theory and Practice of Human Rights and then the human rights stream of the Masters in Public International Law.

Students must fill one of these requirements:

• Passed 1st - 3rd year of the 5-years degree Master of Laws (Master i rettsvitenskap at UiO) (or exams that qualify for exemption for these) or
• Hold a 5-years Master’s degree in Laws (Master i rettsvitenskap at UiO) or equivalent.

Exemptions from the formal prerequisites will be given to students with admission to the faculty`s own exchange or master’s degree programmes. This rule does not apply to students with admission to other master’s degree programmes at the University of Oslo, unless otherwise agreed.

Lectures and seminars

Access to teaching

A student who has completed compulsory instruction and coursework and has had these approved, is not entitled to repeat that instruction and coursework. A student who has been admitted to a course, but who has not completed compulsory instruction and coursework or had these approved, is entitled to repeat that instruction and coursework, depending on available capacity.

Students are graded on the basis of a written home exam and an oral debate assignment.

Maximum length for written home exam is 5000 words. Front page, contents page (optional) and bibliography are not included. If footnotes are used in the text (at the bottom of each page), they are included in the word limits.

Papers that exceed the word limit will not be accepted.

The written assignment account for 100 % of the total grade, the oral debate assignment is graded pass/fail. One total grade is given for the whole coursework.

In case of retake, a candidate must only retake the written assignment if the oral debate has been successfully passed previously.

Please note that if a student wish to file an appeal, only the written assignment will undergo a regrading. You cannot submit an appeal about oral or practical examinations, since the performance is not documented for future purposes.

You must familiarize yourself with the rules that apply to exam support materials, and the use of sources and citations. If you violate these rules, you may be suspected of cheating or attempted cheating. You can read about what the university considers cheating, and the consequences of cheating here.

Previous exam papers

You can usually resit an exam, but the conditions depend on whether you had a valid reason for absence from the regular exam. Read more about resitting an exam.

If a student has submitted a written assignment a second time in the same course s/he can only submit it in a new version. This means that there must be another title and theme, or that the new version must be considerably changed from the first version.

Students who wish to retake the exam in a later semester are not guaranteed that the course is ever repeated with a similar reading list, nor that the exam arrangement will be the same.

Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.

English

You may request an explanation of your grades, and you may also appeal against your grades or make a complaint about formal examination errors. Read more about explanations and appeals.

Overlapping courses

Articles and extraits from books are available in a compilation of texts (kompendium) which can be purchased from Gnist Akademika bookstore at the Law faculty (Domus Nova building).

Required reading

Textbook:

• Javaid Rehman, International Human Rights Law (Pearson, 2nd ed., 2010), pp. 472-640 and 808-878 (240 pages)

Articles:

• Beth Simmons, Mobilizing for Human Rights: International Law in Domestic Politics (2009), pp. 1-22. (22 pages).
• George Christie, Philosopher Kings? The Adjudication of Conflicting Human Rights and Social Values (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 3-11 (8 pages).
• Don Fleming, Legal aid and human rights, Paper presented to the International Legal Aid Group Conference, Antwerp, 6-8 June 2007, pp. 1-35 (35 pages) http://www.ilagnet.org/jscripts/tiny_mce/plugins/filemanager/files/Antwerpen_2007/Conference_Papers/Legal_Aid_and_Human_Rights.pdf
• Eric Barendt, Freedom of Speech (Oxford: Oxford Unviersity Press, 2005), pp. 1-73 (73 pages)
• Richard W. Krouse , ‘Polyarchy & Participation: The Changing Democratic Theory of Robert Dahl’, Polity, Vol. 14, No. 3 (1982), pp. 441-463 (22 pages).
• Henry Steiner, Philip Alston and Ryan Goodman, International Human Rights in Context (OUP, 2007), pp. 280-301) (21 pages)
• Malcolm Langford (ed.), ‘Justiciability of Social Rights: From Practice to Theory, Social Rights Jurisprudence: Emerging Trends in International and Comparative Law (Cambridge University Press, 2008), pp. 3-45 (42 pages)
• Ronald Craig, ‘Systemic Workplace Discrimination: Enforcing Employer-Driven Self-Regulation in M. Langford, Equality and Social Rights: International Law in Context (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press*), Chapter 14. (18 pages). (not yet published).
• Asbjørn Eide: The Framework Convention in Historical and Global Perspective, in Mark Weller (ed.): The Rights of Minori

If you have a disability or a health problem that entails significant inconvenience in an examination situation, you may be considered for special examination arrangements. Mothers who are breastfeeding may apply for extra time to complete the exam.