Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism: Striking a Balance?

This course will challenge you to draw the line of legality of counter-terrorism efforts. Yet, it asks you to understand the maxim stated by Blaise Pascal that ¿Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical.¿ In other words, students should understand the necessity of counter-terrorism to human rights, but that unfettered counter-terrorism undermines human rights itself. Through the study of specific cases in the context of counter-terrorism, students will also understand that there is constantly a necessity to balance competing demands to uphold the principles of democracy and rule of law.

An understanding of international law, the substance of individual human rights, and structures of major international organizations are recommended. This is an advanced course that builds upon these foundational elements.

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.

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.

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.

The course is conducted through lectures, student assignments and seminars with oral presentations by students.

Every other autumn semester

Every other autumn semester

Students are graded on the basis of a 4-hour written open book digital school examination.

The candidates will take the exam on a PC and the submission is digital in Inspera. Read about School exams in Inspera (uio.no)

You must familiarize yourself with the rules that apply to exam support materials, and the use of sources and citations (uio.no).

Previous exam papers

All resources allowed.

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.

Other

• This course is possible to include in the Norwegian degree "Master i rettsvitenskap" from autumn 2012.
• The course has replaced HUMR5503

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.

Evaluation

Feedback from our students is essential to us in our efforts to ensure and further improve the high quality of our programmes and courses. All courses are subject to continuous evaluation. At regular intervals we also ask students on a particular course to participate in a more comprehensive, periodic evaluation of this course.

Overlapping courses

None

Learning outcomes

In order to combat terrorism, states and international organizations have adopted numerous policies and initiatives, especially since 11 September 2001. These counter-terrorism measures pose certain challenges to the international legal system. The course addresses the challenges to the international legal system that counter-terrorism measures entail. We provide an introduction to relevant topics of international law, but the course focuses on the accommodation of and limitations to counter-terrorism measures that international human rights, refugee law, international humanitarian law, and international criminal law place on states.

This course calls upon students to contemplate the line of legality of counter-terrorism efforts. In other words, students should understand the necessity of counter-terrorism to human rights, but that unfettered counter-terrorism undermines human rights itself. Through the study of specific cases in the context of counter-terrorism, students will also understand that there is constantly a necessity to balance competing demands to uphold the principles of democracy and rule of law.

Skills and general competence: Students write a final paper instead of exam. Students read actual cases from the European Court of Human Rights, the Human Rights Committee, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and national courts. They analyze international instruments on counter-terrorism and the fundamental human rights treaties. They are able to explain the ethical and legal dilemmas arising from the phenomenon of the "War on Terror": use of force in counter-terrorist operations (use of drones), preventive actions (search, surveillance, censorship), extraordinary rendition, the prohibition on torture, detention, and prosecution not accordance with international standards. They are able to explain the trans-systemic institutional structure addressing counter-terrorism. Students should be able to apply this knowledge within jobs in the Ministry of Justice, police, intelligence agencies, and law firms.

Syllabus

The book can be purchased from Gnist Akademika bookstore at the Law faculty (Domus Nova building).

This course requires

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.

Please se Detailed regulations for the Faculty of Law, Chapter 3 regarding application, responsibilities and special measures.

A student can sit for this exam up to 3 times. If a student wishes to withdraw from the exam, s/he must do this in Studentweb at least two weeks prior to the first day of the exam. Failure to do so will be counted as one of the three opportunities to sit for the exam. A study programme may have rules that further limit the number of times a student may re-take this exam. In such instances the rules of the study programme will have priority.