General provisions

Laid down on 24 November 1999, by the teaching committee (utbildningsutskottet) of the Faculty of Law, Uppsala University, according to Chapter 2 section 6 of the University Act (högskolelagen) and Chapter 6 section 7 of the University Ordinance (högskoleförordningen).

Changed 11 December 2000.

The course embraces 10 points and is included as a specialised course in the studies for the Master of Laws degree according to the local plan of education adopted the 11 December 1991 by the board of the Faculty of Law at the University of Uppsala.

Entry requirements

The Swedish students are required to have passed all courses, except one, at the basic level of the programme for the Master of Laws degree. All obligatory elements of all courses must have been fulfilled.

Exemption from the acceptance requirements may be granted by the board of exemption.

Aims

1. To give students an understanding of the dynamics of the protection of human rights in an expanding and changing Europe as well as the complexity of the relationship between democracy and human rights.

2. To give students deeper knowledge of key features of a democratic security.

Content

Some of the specific issues to be dealt with include:

- European institutions

The legal requirements for membership of the Council of Europe and the European Union.

- Council of Europe, the European Union and human rights, and the human dimension of the OSSE

The course will provide knowledge on the human rights provisions of the European regional organisations

- Human rights development in some of the new democracies in the former Central Europe

The course is intended to provide inspiration to intensified studies of several issues of present-day democracy, such as the role of democratic institutions and the importance of legal statehood. This will be achieved through a study of the legal transformation in some Central European countries, in particular of Hungary, Romania and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

- Democracy as an instrument of justice

The recent development in legal theory on democracy and justice shall be explored. It will provide a basis for discussion on development of the scope of human rights. The issue whether human rights can be cultural, social, economical, individual or collective will be in focus here.

- Minority rights as human rights

This section on minority rights conflates the ideas on international protection of human rights, democracy and justice, and the situation in Central Europe. Various justifications of minority rights will be discussed using democratic theory, practical experiences of ethnic conflicts, and theories on legal statehood as points of departures.

Instruction

A minor part of the teaching will consist of lectures whereas a major part will consist of seminars in which selected topics are analysed and debated. The lectures introduce new fields of law and aspects of particular theoretical or practical problems and the seminars are used for further discussion and analysis.

The students themselves are required to write an essay of about 20 pages. The essay will be discussed thoroughly at the end of the course at five seminars where the students present and defend their writings. The students are expected to participate in the discussions on the different subjects presented in the papers and every student has to act as opponent to one paper.

Assessment

In order for the students to complete the course they must fulfil the following compulsory requirements:

a) All students are required to prepare for and participate actively in all seminars.

b) All students are required to complete a written essay and participate actively at the Selected Topics seminars.