General provisions

Determined on 241104 by Faculty of Law's Teaching Committee, Uppsala University, by virtue of Chapter 6 Section 14 and 15 (1993:100) of the Higher Education Ordinance. The course plan enters into force on 250901.

The course is 15 university points (15 ECTS credits) and an optional course at advanced level in the studies for the degree of Master of Laws, according to the degree requirements adopted 16 April 2007 by the Board of the Faculty of Law of Uppsala University. The course is held in English.

Entry requirements

In general, Swedish students must have attained five passes out of the six courses given at level 1 of the LL.M programme. All the obligatory phases of the course in which the student has not attained a pass must have been fulfilled. Swedish students must have passed the exam for Term course 6. 

Foreign students should have completed at least two years of legal studies and have a passing grade from an exam in a basic course on the subject, public international law.

If special reasons exist the board of exemption may grant exemption from the acceptance requirements. 

Learning outcomes

The course aims to provide students with a deeper knowledge and understanding of the major areas of general international law and their structure and function, as well as practice in the collection, critical review, analysis and presentation of relevant materials.

Students, after having completed the course, should have the ability:

to identify possible solutions to legal problems and apply the rules of public international law in a competent manner,

to read and understand international case-law and identify the relevant legal issues in the specific case,

to both orally and in written form independently and critically be able to analyze the different areas of public international law covered in the course, and

to comply with essay submission deadlines.

Content

Public international law has a wide range of specialist fields or subject areas, including, among many examples, international human rights law, international humanitarian law, international criminal law, international environmental law and international trade and investment law. However, public international law also has a 'general' part, which applies across all of these specialisms. Any public international lawyer must understand not only their specialist area, but also the general international law framework which gives their subject its foundations and within which the specialist subject areas operate.

This course deals with the foundational rules of public international law and aims to provide a deeper knowledge and understanding of the major areas of general international law.

The course mainly covers, with some possible variations each year, the following areas:

The nature and sources of public international law

The relationship between national and international law

The law of treaties

Jurisdiction

Immunity from jurisdiction

State responsibility

The subjects of international law

Use of force and collective security

International dispute settlement

Instruction

The teaching is in the form of seminars and lectures, the majority being in the form of seminars.

Attendance is compulsory for all forms of teaching. In case of absence from more than two classes (whether lectures or seminars) a written assignment shall be submitted following instructions from the course director. If special reasons exist, the teacher responsible for the course may exempt a student from attending a particular class and require appropriate replacement tasks to be performed.

The seminars are to be prepared in advance in study groups. Active participation is expected at seminars and in the study groups. Students are furthermore required to write an essay on a given topic.

The required preparation for the seminars consists of the literature for the course as a whole, and whatever special reading instructions are given for each seminar.

Assessment

In order to pass the course, the students must participate in all compulsory parts of the course. The examination for the course consists of an individual essay and a written exam at the end of course. The written exam may be given in the form of a take-home exam. If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. For further information, please see the attached study plan.

The Faculty of Law prohibits the use of any deceptive means to influence the outcome of an exam or student work evaluated for a grade. A student, therefore, may only use the materials or learning aids that are expressly permitted during a written examination; all other materials or aids are forbidden. All written work must be the exclusive work of the individual student submitting it for a grade. Cooperation with other students in formulating the content of any submitted work is prohibited, regardless of whether the student provides or receives the prohibited assistance. Work submitted without proper citation or attribution constitutes plagiarism and is strictly proscribed. Additional instructions provided in the course for the specific assignment must also be followed. Final scores on an exam or assignment may be reduced or nullified for a student who engages in any of the misconduct or plagiarism proscribed above, which must also be reported to the University Disciplinary Board. The Board may issue formal warnings or disbar the student from studying at the university for a period of up to six months.

An essay which is submitted late or a take-home exam and essay which has received a failing grade and must be supplemented to be approved, can only receive the grade Pass (B) with the lowest amount of points required for the grade B. 

The grades given are Fail (U), and the passing grades Pass (B), Pass with credit (Ba) and Pass with distinction (AB).

Criteria for grades

For the grade "approved" (B) the student shall, in addition to showing an ability to present complex international legal issues orally and in written form, achieve all the other learning outcomes, showing an ability to present and summarize material in a descriptive and reflective way.

For the higher grade "approved with merit" (Ba) the student shall, in addition to fulfiling the requirements for grade B, show an ability to structure material and to reason independently, critically and analytically.

For the highest grade "approved with distinction" (AB) the student shall, in addition to fulfiling the requirements for grade Ba, show an ability to structure material well, to analyse well, to compare and evaluate critically and to argue convincingly, with a high degree of independence.

Transitional provisions

It is delegated to the course director to issue the study plan and the literature list. These shall be annually submitted to the Teaching Committee as part of the course report.