COURSE MATERIALS AND CURRICULUM SPRING 2013:
Background materials that are to be browsed in advance of the first lecture Tuesday 23 April:
• “The International Bill of Human Rights”, comprising Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (1966/1976), and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966/1976). These documents are available from University of Minnesota Human Rights Library at Link
• Participants should have access to: The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action (1993) Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights at http://www.ohchr.org/english/law/vienna.htm, and Charter of the United Nations (1945) from University of Minnesota Human Rights Library at Link
• Handouts and other supplementary readings will be made available as the course proceeds. Also, a detailed teaching plan will be presented Tuesday 23 April. Additional handouts and supplementary readings will be posted in Fronter.
• At the first course lecture Tuesday 23 April handouts will be available of relevant background information, in particular: excerpts from “Setting International Standards in the Field of Human Rights” (GAR 41/120, 4. Dec. 1986), “Statute of the International Court of Justice” (1945) and “Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties” (1969).
• Beyond the above-mentioned documents course participants who do not have any background in International Human Rights are advised to consult Thomas Buergenthal et al., International Human Rights in a Nutshell, 4th Ed., St Paul, MN: West Publishing Company, 2009; ISBN978-0-314-18480-1 (Recommendation: start by reading chapters 1 through 3 and do not get bogged down by the many references to other literature and to case materials.)
Required reading:
David P. Forsythe, “The United States and International Criminal Justice”, Human Rights Quarterly, 24, 2002:974-991; 17 pages Link
David P. Forsythe: Human Rights in International Relations, 2nd Edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006: 57-88, 121-217; 68 pages
Mary Ann Glendon: A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, New York: Random House, 2001: 99-241; 138 pages
Martti Koskenniemi, “International Law and Hegemony: A Reconfiguration”, Cambridge Review of International Affairs 17, 2004, 197- 218, 20 pages Link
James W. Nickel, Making Sense of Human Rights, Second Edition, Malden MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2007:53-184; 131 pages
Thomas Risse, Ropp, Sikkink eds. The Persistent Power of Human Rights: From Commitment to Compliance, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013; 293 pages
Kathryn Sikkink, The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions are Changing World Politics, New York: Norton and Company, 2011: 1-188 and 225-262; 237 pages
Total: 904 pages