Lecturer: DOUGLAS GUILFOYLE
Douglas Guilfoyle is a graduate of the Australian National University and Cambridge. In Australia he studied History and Law, graduating with first-class honours in both. He has worked for Sydney’s largest firm of commercial solicitors (Mallesons Stephen Jaques), the Australian Administrative Appeals Tribunal and for two judges of the Federal Court of Australia. Having completed the Cambridge Master of Laws degree, he is currently studying towards a PhD in international law at Trinity Hall. His particular research interests lie in the law of the sea and smuggling weapons of mass destruction.
Though globalisation is front-page news, the international institutions that help shape our changing world are often poorly understood. The 2004 law module will provide an introduction to international law and some of its key public institutions: the United Nations, the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
The course will help students question whether these institutions only reflect international politics, or whether they are helping to make a “globalised” international society.
The course will provide an overview of the law relating to the use of military force in the UN system, the violation of human rights as an international crime, and the WTO as “enforceable” international law.
The focus will be on public international law, the law applying to the behaviour of governments in the international realm. However, this law can have a profound impact on individuals, national government policy, national industries, and international trade.
The course will introduce basic concepts and issues relating to the present international system of law through short presentations by the lecturer, class discussions, group exercises and debates. The reading list provides the core material for the course, and students are expected to be familiar with the readings to enable their participation in class.
The course will be assessed on the basis of class participation and a final exam where students will answer one essay question from several options.
Course topics
(1) The idea of law, and the idea of international law
We will begin by discussing the idea of law, its role and purpose within a community, and its similarities to the rules of a game or the constitution of a club.
We will consider briefly how international law is different from national law, and how the two fit together.
We will ask whether there can be laws relating to warfare.
(2) The United Nations: a dream to end war?
We will discuss the origins of the UN system in the Second World War and the ideas of self-defence, the origins of human rights law and the crime of genocide.
(3.1) International Criminal Law and the International Criminal Court
We will pick up the idea of international crimes and the history of the Rome Statute of the ICC.
We will put ideas about international criminal law and UN law together in a mock Security Council debate about stopping genocide in a civil war.
(3.2) The International Criminal Court, part 2
Time permitting; we will turn to the international debate about whether the ICC destroys national sovereignty.
(4.1) The World Trade Organisation, part 1
We will talk about the origins of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in the global economic depression of the 1930s and the Second World War.
We will examine the original “rules of the trade game” from 1945 to 1995.
(4.2) The World Trade Organisation, part 2
We will examine the “new rules” of the WTO, and talk about whether the WTO Appellate Body is a trade-dispute court, and whether the WTO is “democratic” or “biased” against developing nations.
We will debate a hypothetical trade dispute.
(5) Putting it all together
Discussion and debate about whether there is a “system” of international law for a global community or whether “international law” is just a label for what governments do.
Core reading list:
Before arrival in Cambridge students should read -
Martin Dixon and Robert McCorquodale, Cases and Materials on International Law (4th ed, 2003):
Chapter 1 (all)
Chapter 2, pages 19-42
Chapter 5, pages 131-2 and146-52
Chapter 6, pages 175-202, 207-212, 227-233
Chapter 8 (all)
Chapter 9, pages 301-2, 310-319
Chapters 13 and 14 (all)
Students will also need to read the following treaties:
The United Nations Charter (1945), the preamble, and Chapters I, IV, V, VI, VII and VIII
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948)
The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1998), Parts 1, 2 and 3 (Articles 1 -33); Part 9 (only Articles 86-91 and 98); and Part 10 (Article 103)