RSOS2952 – Law, Ideology and Human Rights Violations
Course description
Course content
What happens when democratic principles and the rule of law is challenged and legal systems begin to produce injustice and human rights violations on a grand scale? How do judges and bureaucrats react in such situations - do they oppose or support totalitarian regimes and authoritarian ideologies? How robust is the law and traditional legal authority when thoroughly challenged? Is the international human rights system an effective solution to such problems?
These are some of the important questions addressed in this course. We examine these issues by looking at the legal system and its agents in totalitarian regimes and in democracies in situations of crisis where the rule of law and human rights comes under attack. The historical examples will include the Third Reich, where we analyze the role of judges and the relationship between Nazi ideology and the law. We also seek to understand to what degree a modern and legal bureaucracy helped produce the Holocaust. Following that the Nurnberg Court and its legacy is discussed and the rise of an international and regional human rights regime is described. Further historical examples include the role of law and judges in Communist Dictatorships and the Apartheid-system. We will also focus on contemporary examples of what happens when basic human rights standards are challenged in democratic societies, which will include a discussion of the post 9/11 legalization of torture in the US. Theories on the relationship between fear, risk and law will also be discussed. Finally, the apparent crisis of the international human rights regime is analyzed and the current and future role of human rights will be discussed.
Learning outcome
Knowledge,?at the end of the course, you will have obtained knowledge of some of the most central questions and positions in contemporary debates about law, ideology and human rights, how they interrelate and under what circumstances legal systems can help produce human rights violations:
what is the rule of law and what happens when it is challenged?
how can democratic legal systems evolve into authoritarian ideological institutions?
how and under what circumstances can legal authority help produce injustice and atrocities?
how do judges and bureaucrats act in such situations?
what is the role of human rights in preserving the rule of law?
what is the future of the international human rights regime?
Skills, at the end of the course, students will have:
learned to interpret, analyze and critically discuss scholarly texts and official documents with a view to their possible implications for legal, social and political practices;
learned to compare and evaluate moral, political and legal ideals and proposals
Competences, at the end of the course, students will have:
enhanced their capability to question and discuss urgent and sensitive aspects of historical and contemporary legal, social and political realities;
enhanced their capability to formulate and reflect on their own ideas of the legitimacy of law and judicial regimes
Admission to the course
Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for in Studentweb.
If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures.
Overlapping courses
- 10 credits overlap with RSOS4952 – Law, Ideology and Human Rights Violations.
Teaching
Lectures.
Examination
Students are graded on the basis of a 3-day written home exam.
Maximum length for written home exam on Bachelor’s level 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 2500 word limit.
Papers that exceed the 2500 word limit may be rejected.
Any exam at the University of Oslo is being checked for both correct word count and incidents of cheating.
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.
General rules on cheating and plagiarism apply during all exams.?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. Verbatim quotes must be put in quotation marks, italicised or otherwise highlighted to clearly mark that they are not the candidate’s own words. Failure to cite sources or highlight quotes in your exam answer constitutes a breach of exam regulations, and will be regarded as cheating.?
See an example of how to cite correctly here:?Sources and referencing
Any exam at the University of Oslo is being checked for both correct word count and incidents of cheating.
Submit assignments in Inspera
You submit your assignment in the digital examination system Inspera. Read about how to submit your assignment.
Language of examination
Subjects taught in English will only offer the exam paper in English.
You may write your examination paper in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or English.
Grading scale
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.
This guide is used by examiners for grading this course.
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.