Law (LAW)

Lecturer: Yaël Ronen

Yaël Ronen is currently pursuing her research in international law, on issues of legality and effectiveness in statehood. Following her military service, she studied in the Hebrew University, completing an LLB and LLM in law. She has had 8 years of experience as a career diplomat in the Israeli Foreign Service, during which she participated in the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian on self-government, and represented Israel in the United Nations, primarily in the General Assembly and in human rights committees. She also served 2 years as a diplomat in New Delhi, India. Her academic fields of interest include international law, human rights, gender and family law.

Syllabus - Law and Human Rights in Action

The choice of human rights as the focus of the law module reflects their growing importance within legal practice and research. Human rights law permeates both traditional branches such as criminal, tort, administrative and corporate law, and modern ones such as environmental law. It has promoted the development of new fields of study, such as medical law, gender issues, cultural and social rights and more. Human rights have also been incorporated into international law, an important factor that should be take into account their study.

The aim of the course is to introduce the basic concepts and issues related to the protection of human rights. We will do this by a combination of presentations, small group activities and discussions. Frontal lectures will be maintained at a minimum. The reading list provides a general background to some of the issues. Specific materials will be provided in a study pack upon arrival in Cambridge. Students should familiarize themselves with the material to enable their participation in the activities and discussions.

Lecture 1:
Part 1 - Law in general: We will begin the course by examining the concept of law. We will consider the relationship between law, morality and justice, and examine the functions of law.

Lecture 2:
Part 2 - Identifying human rights: In order to discuss human rights, we need to establish what they are. We will examine what "rights" are, and what "human rights" are. We will try to identify human rights and their classification.

Lecture 3:
Part 3 - Rights in action: Everyday events can be analyzed in terms of human rights. We will consider how rights feature in public and private life - their protection, affirmation, denial, restriction.

Part 4 - Constitutional protection of human rights: National law usually regulates human rights at the constitutional level. We will explore the concept "constitution" and its operation with regard to the protection of law. We will then consider the restrictions on rights, their objectives and their operation within constitutional law.

Lecture 4:
Part 5: International mechanisms for the protection of human rights: Following an introduction on international law, we will look at the development of the international protection of human rights, and the relationship between the international and the national mechanisms of protection.

Lecture 5:
Part 6: Cultural relativism: Are human rights truly universal? We will introduce the debate on universalism v. cultural relativism, and it is practical consequences.

Lecture 6:
Part 7: putting it all together: Through a mock trial, we will put into practice the various aspects of the protection of human rights that we had considered in the preceding lectures.

Reading material:
1. Steiner, Henry, and Alston, Philip, International Human Rights in Context - Law, Politics, Morals (2nd ed, 2002) chapters: 1, 2 , 5, 7
2. Shaw, Malcolm N., International Law (5th Edition, 2003, or 4th edition, 1997)
chapters 1 and 2