This course provides an in-depth examination of the legal frameworks governing international economic relations. It explores the structure, principles, and functioning of the World Trade Organization and international investment agreements, with emphasis on key legal instruments, dispute settlement mechanisms, and the rights and obligations of states and private investors. Through collaborative exercises and live interaction, the course prepares students to apply their newfound knowledge of these fields.
Topics include the historical development of the international economic legal order, major substantive trade and investment protections under treaty and customary law, common questions of jurisdiction and admissibility in trade and investment dispute settlement, the treatment of procedural issues by these panels and tribunals, the review of decisions in both fields, the execution of awards rendered by both ad hoc arbitral tribunals and those established by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, the multiplication of combined approaches to trade and investment in regional treaty systems, and current and future developments in the reform of international economic dispute settlement.
This course introduces participants to the international law dimensions of peace and conflicts. It explores the international legal standards, both in treaty law and in customary international law, that underpin the prevention, management and resolution of inter-state and intra-state conflicts. The course adopts a diverse range of approaches to examine the rules, procedures, successes and failures of key international organizations, including the United Nations, as well as regional organizations, in responding to peace and conflict situations. Several case studies of actual policy responses, or lack thereof, will be explored in the course. Participants will also learn about the limits that international law places on States and non-state actors in peace and conflict situations, before moving into a critical discussion on the debates surrounding lack of enforcement of those standards in international law. Finally, the course will explore how international law intersects with other areas of inquiry related to peace and conflict studies, in order to promote multi-pronged responses to peace and conflict situations.
Note: This course takes place in the context of several ongoing conflicts, including the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas conflicts. Students are provided with relevant materials relating to these conflicts in the required and recommended readings. These materials will further help contextualize broad questions of international law related to peace and conflicts posed in the discussion forums.
This course introduces the theory and practice of conflict analysis, the methodical assessment of conflict – its history, causes, structure, actors, and dynamics.
Conflict analysis is the fundamental tool of peace operations, especially peace-building, development work in areas of conflict, and medium to long-term humanitarian assistance. It provides the necessary understanding of the context in which these interventions take place, and point towards possible entry points where conflict dynamics may be affected by them. As such, conflict analysis should – ideally – be the basis of planning, implementation, and monitoring. Furthermore, it complements other types of analysis, such as needs analysis, or functions as precursor to others, like Do No Harm analysis. This course will concentrate on conflict analysis in the context of peace-building but the general principles, skills, and methods are applicable across the wider set of activities conducted in conflict-affected areas indicated earlier.
Adaptation to climate change without integrating equity and justice will only serve to perpetuate existing inequalities. In this course, students will acquire the conceptual tools to analyse and address climate change issues. We collectively analyse the climate science and international agreements that frame national and global climate action. Climate justice is a framework used to evaluate who benefits most from climate actions as well as to understand whose voices are included/excluded in climate programming and policies and to analyse the root causes of exclusion. In relation to climate justice, we specifically examine how intersectionality shapes climate adaptation, programs, and policies. We examine human rights to better understand how the opportunities and challenges to mobilize for climate action using cases regarding youth, Indigenous peoples, and climate displaced peoples. Using contemporary case studies, we analyse just energy transitions, Indigenous rights and rights of nature. Lastly, we apply our teachings to envision the design of climate just cities.
This course is designed to enable students to gain transferable skills such as negotiation, drafting and public speaking skills that are indispensable for a successful career in international development and diplomacy.
Diplomats, government officials, international civil servants, consultants, and other actors must be able to understand and often work with the United Nations, and UN agencies, in order to achieve their objectives and advance their interests. As an increasingly globalized world continues to underline the importance of multilateral dialogue and cooperation in confronting this century’s challenges, the UN will remain a central forum for progressing ideas and a platform for action.
The course on Introduction to the United Nations System aims to provide an overview of the United Nations system by analyzing the historical origins of international organizations, and then focusing on the United Nations Organizations, its principal organs; their structure, functions, financing; and on the UN development system. The course is divided into nine sessions. The first session will be dedicated to present the history and origins of the United Nations, focusing on its predecessor: The League of Nations. In turn, session two to session six will be devoted to study of the principal organs of the United Nations including the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice, and the Secretariat of the United Nations. Session seven will be focused on the financing mechanism of the United Nations. Session eight will the UN Development system. The last session will be dedicated to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The course constitutes an advanced course dealing with central structural arrangements conducive towards war, militarism, hegemonic masculinities, Femininities, nationalism, conflict creation and resolution, greed, and competitiveness and its consequent violence, including violence against women. The impediments specifically created by lack of gender equity will be analyzed, an analysis that is seen as pivotal for peacekeeping in times of rapid globalization.
Some of the material assigned for the course offers specific strategies for empowerment and achieving gender equity, while representing the necessity for these strategies to be connected to a structural changes and a drastic shift away from the discourses concerning women with the terms “vulnerabilities” and victimization and about males as innately aggressive. It examines the complex relationships between gender, biology, race, class, ethnicity, nationalism, religion, sexual orientation, militarization, both in the domestic and the public spheres. The former is analyzed as a pillar for the latter. Global gender indicators will complement the above material.
The definitions of what constitutes human security have been shifting, specifically when analyzed from a clear gender perspective, assuming that: a) there is no clear boundary between war and peace for women worldwide; and b) security considerations go beyond that of relationships between States and focus on the human. The course will thus focus on peace building and peace education, as well as Gender analysis to Security and peace building.
All social interactions, from personal relationships to international arena, experience opposing preferences. Hence an introductory course on the theory and practice of negotiation and mediation is essential for understanding topics as diverse as marital disputes, organizational relations, community conflicts, group decision-making and international relations. It will enhance one's ability to critically review situations in order to find and adopt a mutually accepted solution to a given situation. This course is therefore designed to serve as a broad introduction to the nature, scope, theories and practices of negotiation and mediation. The course will examine the complex and yet essential roles of negotiation and mediation as part of the main procedures of dealing with opposing preferences and as models of constructive conflict transformation. The course will set the context with a discussion on the nature, assumptions, emotions and decision-making approaches involved in negotiations, the dynamics revolving around it and the gender perspective to it. It will also examine the various objectives, considerations, essences and processes of mediation. The course utilizes participatory and interactive pedagogies.
Environmental degradation, humanitarian crisis, immigration, financial meltdowns or military interventions do not recognize any geographic boundaries and challenge the political borders on which the international politico-legal system is founded. Nevertheless, while the importance of territory and inter-state boundaries is perceived as diminishing in the globalized world of the 21st century, many of the contemporary conflicts are inseparable from their territorial roots. Hence, establishing and managing limits between sovereign states and neighboring countries constitute today an unlimited source of tension around the world. Against the violent background of political borders, this class brings a critical perspective with respect to the role of modern international law in matters of peace and stability.
International law is founded on territorialized concepts such as state, sovereignty, effective control and territorial jurisdiction. Nonetheless, this legal system seems to be inherently paradoxical as it incorporates rules and principles which break through the territorial configuration of the very same system - self-determination, human rights, contingent sovereignty, responsibility to protect and claims of universality are a few examples. The course will raise the following questions: What is the structure of the international legal argument regarding borders? Is the pluralistic legal system chaotic and contradictory, or is there an overarching legal pattern bringing coherence to the legal system related to political borders? What does this system say and what kind of impact does it leave on the globe. Also, the most theoretical questions are combining with the answer that international law presented to some of the issues raised along the course: delimitation, demarcation, territorial control, among many other concepts.
The courses focus the analysis on case studies, from a historical and actual agenda in the international community.
The contemporary global order is founded upon the principle of sovereignty of States and non-interference in each other’s domestic affairs. At the same time, there is an ever-increasing push for 'global governance' as the key to resolving issues of common concern to humanity, especially those which are transboundary in nature. But how should global governance work in the absence of a global government? Is global governance a good thing or a bad thing for humanity and the planet anyway? Recent world events have demonstrated that while elements of global governance on issues such as climate change and forced displacement might be necessary, grassroots organizations and civil society have simultaneously pushed back against ‘too much’ global governance in other areas such as trade and finance. Should we then move towards more global governance by identifying the gaps and plugging them? Or should we rather move towards restricting global governance because it is invasive and shrinks ‘governance space’ of States?
This course introduces students to the various dimensions of global governance, debates on its lack of effectiveness in some areas, as well as debates on its over-regulation in some others. The course adopts a multi-disciplinary approach to unpacking this important and emerging area of global policy making. It also adopts a dynamic pedagogy included readings, multi-media content, lectures, and discussion forums.
This six-week intensive course looks at the relationship between the environment and international law and examines how these linkages may assist efforts to protect the environment in the variable global context. The course uses an interdisciplinary approach and focuses on the educational, legal and social aspects of this relationship. The course will address environmental degradation, climate change, mitigation and adaptation, human mobility, human rights-based approaches to the environment, loss and damage, and the international environmental development in the light of the post-2020 development agenda and after the math of COVID-19 pandemic. Under the umbrella of international law and environmental science, the course will pay special attention to hybrid approaches related to the environment and multiple branches of international law, including as a potential strengthening and dispersing method to address the nexus of human rights, human mobility, and the environment.
The course is based on a dynamic pedagogy including reading materials, case studies, and interactive discussion with the professor.
On 25 September, 2015, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a new and ambitious collective global plan of action for transforming our world by 2030 through the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs, which are part and parcel of the 2030 Agenda, replace and build upon the previous Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which ran their course in 2015. The advancement of the SDGs over the MDGs is not only in its scope – there are now 17 Goals as against the previous 8 – but also in some of the known structural shortcomings in the design of targets and indicators of the MDGs.
The global agenda for development, including development aid, financing, and international cooperation, for the next 15 years will likely gravitate around the SDGs. Indeed, the 2030 Agenda calls for a convergence around the SDGs of responses to several contemporary issues of global concern, whether related to climate change, human rights, peace and security, gender equality, migration, safe cities, rule of law, good governance, education, health, multilateral trade, investment, amongst others. However, a successful implementation of the SDGs can only result from learning the lessons from the MDG story where despite admirable progress in some goals, some others unfortunately remained off-track.
In this course, we will examine the process of designing and carrying out research. We will explore the basic structure of research, learn how to critically analyze the literature to identify research topics and questions, and we will dialogue about the ethics of research. Research designs will be reviewed as well as multiple methods for data gathering both in qualitative and quantitative research (e.g. interviews, photovoice, surveys). Lastly, we will learn how to analyze data so you can present and disseminate your research. Emphasis will be placed on examining existing research to ensure that teachings are applicable to on the ground work. This class is relevant to students and professionals that want to deepen their understanding of how to design, carry out, and disseminate research.