International Law Concentration

Provides a basic introduction to the field of international law. Topics covered include interpretation of international agreements; international dispute resolution; international organizations; international jurisdiction over persons, property, and territory and limitations on such jurisdiction; law of the sea; international human rights law; international environmental law; and the law concerning use of force in the international system. The course is designed to expose students to the sorts of issues that arise in cases before international tribunals and organizations and in cases involving foreign parties and international legal principles in US courts.

This seminar focuses on the evolving legal framework for holding businesses to account for activities that negatively impact human rights. The course is largely structured around the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) which were approved by the UN Human Rights Council in 2011. The UNGPs have created an evolving normative framework that aims to prevent and remedy human rights abuses committed by companies and has become an important area of legal compliance work. The seminar is designed to provide students with a general overview of the general framework established by the UNGPs and will include coverage of: the international human rights legal regime; the development of international, domestic and voluntary corporate initiatives designed to bring corporations in line with human rights norms; the best practices for corporations to incorporate measures to assure respect of human rights; the potential liability of corporations for alleged violations of international human rights law; and the available judicial and nonjudicial remedies for vindicating violations of these rights. The course focuses on both the legal, practical, and political challenges that all stakeholders face in this new area of emerging international law while building the skills needed by a professional in this field. This course may be offered every other year.

Examines the international law principles that have been applied to indigenous peoples and how indigenous peoples have been treated by international organizations and by the domestic laws of different nations. Topics addressed include property rights; economic development; religious and cultural preservation rights; and the right to self-determination. Please check the most recent course registration information to determine if this course meets the Experiential Education/Professional Skills requirement. This course may be offered every other year.

The trade law of the United States, including treaties, and some law of foreign countries will be examined from the perspective of an American lawyer. Transactions examined include transnational sales licensing and other business arrangements, such as financing and insurance. Potential clients from whose perspectives the alternatives are explored include the US firm doing business abroad, the US firm seeking government assistance in protecting it from unfair foreign competition, the foreign firm doing business in the United States, and state and local governments seeking to buy foreign products, forbid the purchase of foreign products, or promote exports. Treaties and local law designed to protect special interests or to promote competition in an increasingly global market, such as the North American Free Trade Association (NAFTA), the European Union (EC, Common Market), and the World Trade Organization (WTO, GATT), as well as other trade arrangements concerning the so-called Third World and the Pacific Rim, are used to demonstrate the critical role of law in structuring international trade. This is an increasingly important and fast-changing field, with ample scope for individual research papers.

This course explores some of the many legal issues that implicate national security in the United States. Among the topics we will consider are: the constitutional framework for national security and separation of powers; the authority to use force abroad; the authority to conduct intelligence operations abroad; and the effort to fight terrorism. This course will be taught as a colloquium; after an initial introduction to the constitutional framework, teaching will be undertaken by students: each student (or team of students, depending upon enrollment) will be responsible for leading discussion on a topic related to national security law. This course may be offered every other year.

The course surveys relevant international laws, the convention and protocol, as well as U.S. laws and procedures governing human trafficking, and compares those to the European Union approach. Students review an array of civil and criminal cases, and the domestic legislative history to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and its reauthorization acts to understand how human trafficking laws and regulations have evolved since first promulgated in 2000. Students will gain a broad understanding of factors that drive trafficking, the routes used by traffickers, and the means by which law enforcement officers find victims and prosecutors make cases against traffickers. Finally, through use of a simulation, students will learn how to prepare a T-visa application for a victim of human trafficking in the United States.

The course will survey the relevant international laws and conventions governing refugees and asylum seekers, but the focus will be building the skills necessary to bring an asylum case in the United States. Each class will take students through one element of the complex categories available to asylum seekers (race, religion, nationality, political opinion, and social group) and review the points at which asylum law in the United States has intersected with politics in recent years (national security, international relations, immigration). Each class also will contain an exercise designed to prepare students to be practice-ready in preparing an asylum claim. Students should come away with understanding of the asylum law and process and be sufficiently prepared to bring an asylum claim. Please check the most recent course registration information to determine if this course meets the Experiential Education/Professional Skills requirements.

The course deals with legal, moral, social, and political questions that arise in countries emerging from periods of massive and systematic violation of human rights and international humanitarian law, such as armed conflict, apartheid, authoritarian, or repressive rule. The course will offer a comparative study of strategies chosen by governments to build democracy, the rule of law, and a culture of rights. The course will examine themes that include prosecutions, truth commissions, reparation programs, institutional reforms, and reconciliation programs. Cases will come from experiences as they occurred in Latin America, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the United States. Particular emphasis will be placed on the issues, dilemmas, and lessons arising out of these different experiences, especially as countries seek to balance their international legal obligations with national political realities. This course may be offered every other year.

A summer study abroad program in Galway, Ireland, and for-credit externships in international
law are available.
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