International Law under Pressure: Disputes and Force in a Changing International Legal System

Module Title: International Law under Pressure: Disputes and Force in a Changing International Legal System

Module Leader: Professor Marc Weller

Module Description:  

This course considers the issue area of the use of force in international relation and the role international can play in seeking to constrain organized violence. This is an area of law that used to be relatively stable. However, recent changes and challenges to the international system have placed international law and international institutions covering this issue under considerable strain. As the use of force is often seen as a touch-stone for the effectiveness, and even existence, of international law, this challenge is particularly profound.

It is assumed that you have not studied international law before. We will try, in the first session or two, to grain the necessary grounding to understand how the international legal system works. We will then consider collective security, claims to self-defence and forcible humanitarian action in recent practice and doctrine.

By the end of the course, you should be in a position to understand the classical law in this area and recent challenges to it, and to form a view on whether or not international law still plays a significant and useful role where disputes and the use of force are concerned.

For the examination, you will have a choice of one out of three questions. At least one will be an essay question and at least one will be a case-based problem question.