LAW 6008 :
International Human Rights

This seminar will focus on selected problems of international human rights, including, for example, the human rights provisions of the U.N. Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Human Rights Covenants and other human rights treaties such as the American Convention on Human Rights; enforcing international human rights through the United Nations and the Organization of American States (OAS); regional arrangements to protect human rights such as the European Court of Human Rights and the inter-American human rights system; international human rights and the criminal process; enforcing international human rights law in U.S. courts; and the relevance of human rights law to the foreign policy process. Seminar members will be expected to draft a brief for and participate in a mock audience before the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, or the United National Human Rights Council: participate actively in class discussion and debate; and write a final ten-page paper on a human rights issue to be selected after consultation with the instructor. One-third of the grade in the seminar will be based on the text of the brief; one third on participation in class discussion; and one third on the final paper.