Corsi di Studio del Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza

The course aims to enable the students to understand the basics of international law as a distinct legal order, i.e. the law of the international society as regards: its subjects; its sources and their making; the main content of its norms; the enforcement of its norms. Students shall also be able to understand the issue of the relations between international and national legal orders.

The course aims to provide students the ability to correctly analyse and present international legal issues; ; to apply their knowledge of international law to conceptualize, analyse and evaluate information pertaining to past and current cases; to debate on recent developments from an international legal perspective.

Students will be required to attain a good knowledge of the topics and issues treated during the course and to be able to consciously make use of the conceptual tools acquired.

In particular, students should demonstrate their understanding of international law through correct, well-structured and clear presentation of international legal issues, including analysis of questions arising from cases.

Attendance of classes is highly recommended, and constant attendance is necessary for preparing the exam as an "attenting students" on the materials provided by the teacher. Because attendance is not compulsory, however, students preparing for the exam on their own wothout attending classes ("non-attending students") will be expected to study on an textbook (see below).

For students attending class:

The course consists of lectures (usually with powerpoint presentations) and learning activities. It is mainly delivered through in-presence live sessions and online materials. Students are required to take part to the live sessions regularly, use the online materials and do the learning activities. Any on-distance modality will only be introduced according to the then-applicable rules.

Learning activities may require reading of different types of materials (newspaper articles, case analyses, legal documents such as treaties or parts of them, case law...), self-assessment tests and/or class discussion.

Learning activities including self-assessment tests may also occur outside live sessions, in preparation of them or ex post.

Powerpoint presentations and materials/tools supporting lectures and learning activities will be made available on the Moodle platform.

It is IMPERATIVE that students wishing to attend classes enrol in the teaching platform (Moodle) prior to the beginning of the course, to have prompt access to materials and communications.

For both attending and non-attending students:

The final exam consists of a hand-written, non-open-book exam based. It lasts 90 minutes. Students will be given 5 questions or topics and will have to answer or present 4 of them at their choice. Questions or topics may vary for students having attended classes or not, and the contents of the answers will be evaluated against the course materials or the textbook, respectively.

Any on-distance modality will be introduced according to the then-applicable rules.

The evaluation (grade: out of 30, with the possibility of obtaining 30 cum laude) will be based, in particular, on correct and complete elements of the answers or presentations, good structure and clarity of the text, and correct terminology.

The programme will cover the following topics (modules):

1. the subjects of the international legal order;

2. international legal sources and their making;

3. the relationship between international law and domestic law;

4. the law of international responsibility;

4. the peaceful settlement of international disputes;

5. the use of force and the UN collective security mechanism;

6. State sovereignty, jurisdiction and immunities;

7. international human rights law, international criminal law, international economic law, international environmental law.

Non-attending students must prepare on EITHER Jan Klabber's International Law (all) OR Anders Henriksen's International law (all).

Attending students will be examined on the course topics as they will have been tackled in class. Studying on (duly-taken) class notes and materials uploaded on the Moodle platform is required; moreover, the same topics which have been tackled in class must be studied on EITHER Klabber's International Law (chapters 2 to 10 and 16) OR Henriksen's International law (chapters 1 to 7, 9, 12 and 13).