HUMR5140 – Human rights in international and national law
Course description
Course content
The legal protection of human rights on the international level has developed rapidly since the end of World War II while the post-Cold War period has seen a proliferation of remedial mechanisms. The course places human rights law in a broader context of international law, and gives an overview of the legal developments in human rights from 1789 through to the present, with a focus on the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, international and regional human rights treaties and UN Charter bodies. However, the primary focus of the course is to describe important legal characteristics of human rights treaties, such as the personal and territorial scope of application, the treaty bodies, the supervision and enforcement mechanisms, and the legal impact on a national and international level. Further, the course introduces particular substantive rights which will be addressed more in-depth at other courses in the program.
Learning outcome
This course discusses human rights as a legal concept, and aims to provide students with a good understanding of human rights law.
After having completed this course the student will have acquired detailed?knowledge?about:
- a good understanding of institutions and mechanisms for the protection and promotion of human rights at global, regional and national level
- a good understanding of important legal characteristics of human rights treaties, such as their scope of application, their supervision and enforcement mechanisms, and their legal impact on a national and international level
- knowledge about the trajectory of legal developments in human rights
- knowledge about important human rights instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and regional and international human rights treaties
- knowledge about selected substantive rights, which will be addressed more in-depth in other courses
After having completed this course the student will have the?skills?to:
- identify and utilise tools for the interpretation and application of human rights norms
- problematise human rights questions in a legal context
- identify key institutional mechanisms for addressing human rights concerns
- present orally and in writing arguments on human rights from a legal perspective
Having completed this course the student will have the?general competence?to:
- view human rights law in a broader context of international law
- understand the potential and the limitations of law as a tool to address human rights concerns
Admission to the course
The course is reserved for students enrolled in the Master’s programme Theory and Practice of Human Rights.?
?
When your admission is in order you must register for courses in StudentWeb.?
Overlapping courses
- 10 credits overlap with HUMR4140 – Introduction to Human Rights Law (discontinued).
- 5 credits overlap with JUS5710 – International Human Rights Law: Institutions and Procedures.
Teaching
Lectures with active student participation.?
Examination
Students are graded on the basis of a 4 hours digital school exam and a midterm paper exam submission.
The exam topics may include issues from mandatory and recommended prerequisites.
Maximum length for midterm paper exam?is 2500 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 digital school exam accounts for 100% of the total grade, while the midterm paper is graded pass/fail. One total grade is given for the entire coursework.
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.
Examination support material
Midterm paper exam submission: All available exam resources are allowed when answering this exam. Rules for source referencing are crucial for determining whether the use of resources is permitted.
Your exam paper must be an independent work. Exam candidates are not permitted to communicate with other persons about the exam question(s) or distribute draft answers or exam answers.
4 hours digital school exam: This is an open book digital school examination. You are permitted to use any materials written on paper during the examination. This includes books, lecture materials and your own notes, whether handwritten or printed. There are no restrictions on marking up or highlighting these written materials. Printouts/notes from Lovdata are allowed.
No electronic support materials are allowed. Lovdata Pro will be closed for all students during the 4 hour school exam.
?
The standard rules on cheating and plagiarism which apply to assignments apply also to the written open book examination. This means that you must provide a reference whenever you draw upon another person’s ideas, words or research in your answer to the exam question(s). You cannot copy text directly from textbooks, journal articles, court judgments etc. without highlighting that the text is copied.
Thus, pieces of text quoted verbatim from these and other sources must be italicised or otherwise highlighted so that it is obvious that the pieces of text are quotes.
Example of highlighting in a text:
"Laurent Bailay and Bernard Van der Lande propose to define a mobile payment as a "payment for products or services between two parties for which a mobile device, such as a mobile phone, plays a key role in the realization of the payment". (European Commission, GREEN PAPER Towards an integrated European market for card, internet and mobile payments, page 5)"
Failure to cite sources or highlight quotes in your exam answer may be considered as evidence of cheating.
Language of examination
The examination text is given in English, and you submit your response in English.
Grading scale
School exam: 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.
Midterm exam:?Grades are awarded on a pass/fail scale. Read more about?the grading system.
Resit an examination
It is possible to take this exam up to 3 times. If you?withdraw from the exam?after the deadline or during the exam, this will be counted as an examination attempt.?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.
More about examinations at UiO
- Use of sources and citations
- How to use AI as a student
- Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
- Withdrawal from an exam
- Illness at exams / postponed exams
- Explanation of grades and appeals
- Resitting an exam
- Cheating/attempted cheating
You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.