Within the context of international law, students will 
understand:
(1) the history, nature, sources, and efficacy of international 
law;
(2) the establishment, transformation, and termination of states 
and other participants;
(3) the domestic incorporation of international law;
(4) how international law allocates jurisdiction to make and 
apply law, as well as international immunities from jurisdiction;
(5) international law’s effort to protect human dignity, 
including international human rights law, the law of war, and 
international criminal law;
(6) control and regulation of the resources of the planet, with 
a focus on the law of the sea and the global economy; and
(7) the use of force.

Part 1:  Introduction:  What is International Law?
1. Course Introduction
2. The History of International Law
3. “Classical” International Law and the Chad-Libya War Over the 
Aouzou Strip
4. Contemporary challenges and the Rainbow Warrior Affair 

Part 2:  The Sources of International Law
1. Treaties and the Whaling Regime
2. Custom and Foreign Direct Investment
3. Soft Law and Other Sources

Part 3:  Participants in the International Legal Process
1. States – Self-determination, Secession, Succession
2. International Organizations
3. Non-State Actors

Part 4:  Relationship Between International and Domestic Law
1. Making International Law in the U.S.
2. Breaking International law in the U.S. 
3. Extraterritorial Reach of Domestic Laws
4. Sovereign Immunity

Part 5:  Protecting Human Dignity
1. Civil and Political Rights – The Prohibition of Torture
2. Economic and Social Rights
3. Human Rights, Balancing, and Cultural Relativism 

Part 6:  Interdependence and Integration
1. Law of the Sea and Control of the Arctic
2. Managing the Global Economy – International Trade and 
Investment
3. Balancing Trade and the Environment
4. The AIDS Pandemic and Access to Medicine

Part 7:  The Law of Armed Conflict
1. Use of Force – the 1991 and 2003 Gulf Wars
2. Intervention and Self-Defense – Civil War in Syria
3. Humanitarian Intervention and Kosovo
4. Limitations of Weaponry
5. Protection of Non-Combatants
6. Accountability – Abu Ghraib
7. International Criminal Law – Responding to Rwandan Genocide 

Part 8:  What is International Law? Theory Revisited