Unit name | Human Rights in Law, Politics and Society |
---|---|
Unit code | LAWDM0089 |
Credit points | 30 |
Level of study | M/7 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 4 (weeks 1-24) |
Unit director | Professor. Greer |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | University of Bristol Law School |
Faculty | Faculty of Social Sciences and Law |
This unit covers the following topics and themes: the history of the human rights ideal and its contested status in western debates about law, politics and society; the internationalization and globalization of human rights; arguments about the universality and cultural limits of human rights particularly with respect to Islam, Asia, China, and multicultural societies; attempts to sanction human rights violations through judicial processes, especially by the European Court of Human Rights and the International Criminal Court; and some sharp contemporary debates, including about the profile of human rights in processes of democratization, in relation to global poverty and economic development, in response to terrorism, and in armed conflict.
The unit is designed to cultivate and encourage reflective and creative engagement with the issues rather than simply knowledge acquisition and transfer. By the end of the unit a successful student will be able to:
Students should be able to state the various arguments and positions in key debates accurately, to assess them critically and to come to reasoned provisional conclusions about how challenging issues might best be understood and problems resolved.
This unit is also intended to improve the following benchmark skills – critical analysis of written texts and written argumentation.
The contact hours for this unit will be 30 hours. This will usually take the form of: 8 lectures, 10 two-hour seminars and 2 assessment preparation and feedback sessions.
Summative: a 2000 word essay (33%) and a 3 hour written examination (67%). Both assessments will assess all of the Intended Learning Outcomes for this unit in the context of topics selected by the examiners.
Formative: students may do 1 x 1500 word essay as formative assessment.