The course International Law is a compulsory course within the Master’s Programme in International Human Rights Law at the Faculty of Law. The course purports to offer a broad introduction into international law. It focuses on central concepts and salient techniques of identifying and interpreting the law, clarifies the relationship between international law and domestic law and offers an overview of select areas of material law. In a parallel stream, the course introduces participants to major approaches to theorize international law.

• Course syllabus JAMR23 (shown as PDF)
• Schedule Autumn 2023 (shown in TimeEdit's view)

Schedule is deemed preliminary until the course starts.

Course director: Associate Professor Valentin Jeutner

The course is the first dedicated International Human Rights Law (IHRL) course on the Master’s programme. Following immediately after the course in International Law, the course provides a platform for further inquiry – both in and beyond the programme – into IHRL, from a global perspective. To this end, the course introduces IHRL as 1) a set of institutions or actors acting at international, regional and state level; 2) a movement or project with a particular history, characteristics and ambitions; and 3) with a substantive normative base in the sources of international law.

Although the course is sequenced in this way, for each new element, points of contact or interaction between the different elements are discussed. Further, thematic lectures and seminars cutting across the three elements are offered.

• Course syllabus JAMR40 (shown as PDF)
• Course literature JAMR40 (shown as PDF)
• Schedule Autumn 2023 (shown in TimeEdit's view)

Schedule is deemed preliminary until the course starts.

Course director: 

International Human Rights Law II (IHRL II) is the second course on the Master’s
programme dedicated to international human rights law. The two main themes
through which we approach IHRL is the evolution of law and equality. We explore the way IHRL evolves through its framework for creation, interpretation and application of norms. Through doing so we delve deeper into the norms of IHRL and the actors involved from an equality perspective. A central dimension of the evolution of law which will permeate these themes is the relationship between legal analysis and knowledge from other disciplines.

• Course syllabus JAMR41 (shown as PDF)
• Course literature JAMR41 (shown as PDF)
• Schedule Spring 2024 (shown in TimeEdit's view)

Schedule is deemed preliminary until the course starts.

Course director: Postdoctoral Fellow Anna Nilsson

Requirements exchange students: International students must have passed at least two and a half (2.5) years of law school studies at University level.

Business and Human Rights / Corporate Social Responsibilities is an elective course in the Master's programmes in International Human Rights Law and European Business Law respectively.

The existence, nature and scope of corporate responsibilities regarding human rights: ‘soft law’ instruments at international level and relevant legal frameworks at national level. Issues addressed include corporate actors as subject and actors of international law; the foundational role of the 2011 UN Guiding Principles of Business and Human Rights, the duties of corporate management under company law; reporting requirements under transparency laws; and transnational litigation.

The implementation of CSR and emerging best practices: stages of implementation, available guidelines at each stage and actors involved.

Closer look at two industrial sectors: extractive industries and labour intensive industries.

Evolution of CSR – emerging issues and challenges: the limits of CSR; mechanisms for the scaling-up of CSR and the relationship between corporate voluntarism (CSR) and law.

• Course syllabus JAMR12 (shown as PDF)
• Course literature JAMR12 (shown as PDF)
• Schedule Spring 2024 (shown in TimeEdit's view)

Schedule is deemed preliminary until the course starts.

Course director: Head of Economic Globalisation and Human Rights Thematic Area, Radu Mares

Requirements exchange students: International students must have passed at least two and a half (2.5) years of law school studies at University level.

The course will cover the central areas of international human rights law structured under the following main headings:

• The history of fighting serious crime and terrorism and attached case law and the legal and moral considerations while doing so. The course examines the concept of terrorism and serious crime in national and international law, mainly European. The course also examines what technological possibilities exist in the fight and how they can be used by private and public actors.
• General part of International Human rights Law and good policing. The course examines what parts of human rights law are affected by using advanced technology in the combat of serious crime and terrorism. In connection with this the use of technology and methods in democracies and totalitarian states will be examined.
• The role of the police in democratic and undemocratic environments. The course focuses on the role of the police in democratic and undemocratic environments and what role, in practice and in theory, human right law must play in societies faced with challenges of, inter alia, violence and terror.
• Course syllabus JAMR36 (shown as PDF)
• Course literature JAMR36 (shown as PDF)
• Schedule Spring 2024 (shown in TimeEdit's view)

Schedule is deemed preliminary until the course starts.

Course director: Senior Lecturer Karol Nowak

Requirements exchange students: International students must have passed at least two and a half (2.5) years of law school studies at University level.

The systems of protection of fundamental rights in Europe have a huge impact on our lives and on the national legal frameworks.

The current setting of human rights protection in Europe is based on different sources that respond to different rationales. After the Second World War, our fundamental rights have been guaranteed in the European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (the ECHR) or the Convention. Individuals who deem themselves victims of human rights law violations can complain to an international court, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). In addition to the ECHR, within Europe there is another legal framework that is also relevant to the protection of fundamental rights. This is EU law. Originally, the EU was primary focused on economic collaboration and fundamental rights were not part of the EU regulatory framework. This was, however, met with criticism. As a result, fundamental rights were recognized as fundamental principles of community law by the Court of Justice (ECJ). Thereafter, changes were introduced in the EU treaties and protection of fundamental rights was brought therein. The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights was adopted and since 2009 the Charter is binding EU law. These different instruments (ECHR and EU CFR) are overlapping and create a complicated network of human rights obligations with different risks and benefits for individuals and groups.

For these reasons, the course aims to not only offer lectures on the different systems of fundamental rights protection in Europe and their interaction, but also to focus on certain concrete themes that pose contemporary challenges in our complex societies. Examples include positive obligations, privacy rights and judicial independence.

• Course syllabus JAMR45 (shown as PDF)
• Schedule Spring 2024 (shown in TimeEdit's view)

Schedule is deemed preliminary until the course starts.

Course director: Senior Professor Vladislava Stoyanova, Doctoral Student Alezini Loxa

Requirements exchange students: International students must have passed at least two and a half (2.5) years of law school studies at University level.

The aim of the course is to provide the students with the possibility to critically analyse the impact of cultural diversity, as a legal standard, within the contemporary regime of international human rights law. Particular emphasis will be given to the influence of cultural diversity on the construction of differentiated legal regimes for diverse groups, such as ethno-cultural minorities and indigenous peoples.

Different disciplines have focused on cultural diversity and in the manner that this notion has shape modern societies. In this course, cultural diversity will be approached from a legal standpoint, tracking its presence – as a legal standard – in different international human rights instruments, and – in particular – through the interpretation given by regional and international judicial or quasi-judicial bodies, such as the European and Inter- American Courts of Human Rights, the Human Rights Committee, etc.

In this sense, this course will provide a comparative approach between different regional systems of human right protection, in particular between the European and the Inter-American ones. Through the critical analysis of their jurisprudence, this course will focus on the manner that cultural diversity has influenced the interpretation and implementation of recognised human rights. In particular, it will encourage the development of an autonomous critical thinking vis-à-vis the potential contradictions that the use of cultural diversity – as a legal standard – has generated vis-à-vis the universal character of human rights.

• Course syllabus JAMR33 (shown as PDF)
• Schedule Spring 2024 (shown in TimeEdit's view)

Schedule is deemed preliminary until the course starts.

Course director: Senior Researcher at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute, Alejandro Fuentes

Requirements exchange students: International students must have passed at least two and a half (2.5) years of law school studies at University level.

This course considers the role of the international system for the protection of human rights in addressing the interconnected issues of environmental degradation and climate change. It is structured in three parts.

The first part focuses on the historical development of the right to a healthy
environment. Using early case law and international declarations, this part traces the development of the right to a healthy environment as an increasingly established substantive human right, reflected amongst others in the Framework Principles on Human Rights and the Environment prepared by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, and judgments from regional human rights courts.

The second part considers how international human rights law applies in the context of disasters. Recognising that human rights law can clearly constrain actors who would engage in conduct that directly damages the environment, how effectively can it compel states to take positive action to protect people from harm arising from hazards that are present within the environment, such as cyclones, floods and earthquakes? What steps must states take to address foreseeable hazards that can trigger disasters, and in what kind of circumstances might a state be considered to be in breach of its human rights obligations when disasters unfold? Together with a critical exploration of the legal limits of international human rights law to address the challenges presented by (climate-related) disasters, this part will also consider the role of human rights as part of a set of practical tools that frontline actors as well as
national authorities can draw upon in devising responses to concrete challenges.

Finally, the third part looks at the present and towards the medium-term future, asking whether catastrophic climate change imperils the continuity of the human rights paradigm. Issues relating to responsibility for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, climate justice, and cross-border displacement (‘climate refugees’) are in focus.

• Course syllabus JAMR39 (shown as PDF)
• Schedule Spring 2024 (shown in TimeEdit's view)

Schedule is deemed preliminary until the course starts.

Course director: Head of the People on the Move thematic area at Raoul Wallenberg Institute, Matthew Scott

The course will start off with an overall comparison of the trade and migration
regimes against the backdrop of economic and human rights parameters. The interest of the states to regulate migration is taken as a vantage point. A central issue running through the course is how the state sovereign entitlement to control immigration may conflict with human rights law. The course will include inter alia lectures on topics such as the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, The Common European Asylum System, The Dublin System, Protection from Refoulement under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, Evidentiary Assessment in Asylum Cases, Children as Asylum-seekers. Another building block of the course will cover protection of migrant workers who are vulnerable to abusive practices. Lectures belonging to this block will address Trafficking in Human Beings, The Migrant Workers Convention, The Positive Human Rights Obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights, The ILO and the Protection of Migrant Workers.

The course will include seminars where students will be required to actively
participate. That participation will be essential for the exam preparation. The exam will be in the format of a take home exam, which will include one essay question and three focus questions. To pass the exam students will be required to demonstrate their skills of developing formal legal argumentation. Students are required to analyze case law with regard to the legal questions, the legal arguments and solutions proposed and to show strong analytical skills. In addition, students should demonstrate their understanding of the migration law regime as a whole and to identify the forces affecting the legal regulation of migration.

• Course syllabus JAMR13 (shown as PDF)
• Schedule Spring 2024 (shown in TimeEdit's view)

Schedule is deemed preliminary until the course starts.

Course director: Associate Professor Vladislava Stoyanova

The course offers an advanced introduction to International Humanitarian Law (IHL) for human rights lawyers.

A critical perspective is applied to the history, structure and politics of IHL, including the tension between ameliorating and legitimizing violence in the context of armed conflict. The relationship to general international law, the jus ad bellum in particular, is discussed and a key component of the course is the relationship between human rights and humanitarian law. As far as substantive humanitarian law is concerned the course highlights key principles stemming from both customary and treaty law and offer an orientation in its manifold treaties and norms. Finally, the course considers a number of contemporary questions and challenges for humanitarian law.

• Course syllabus JAMR20 (shown as PDF)
• Course book at the Cambridge University Press' website (available for purchase at online bookstores. Copies are also available at the RWI library and the Law Faculty library)
• Schedule Autumn 2023 (shown in TimeEdit's view)

Schedule is deemed preliminary until the course starts.

Course director: Senior Lecturer Markus Gunneflo

The aim of the course is to provide the students with insight into how the practical application of international human rights standards can be promoted, as exemplified by the work of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute. The Raoul Wallenberg operates in different thematic projects throughout the world. The students will learn about the Institutes’ different activities by strengthening human rights in different regions. The course will address the diversities and commonalities of human rights problems in the different regions. These commonalities and diversities will then be analysed and problematized.

• Course syllabus JAMR47 (shown as PDF)
• Schedule Autumn 2023 (shown in TimeEdit's view)

Schedule is deemed preliminary until the course starts.

Course director: Senior Lecturer Karol Nowak

The course will cover the central areas of international criminal law structured under the following main headings:

• The History and Structure of International Criminal Law. The course will examine the concept of international criminal law as such, its place within the system of public international law and municipal law and the development of international criminal law in a historical perspective. The course will also examine the operations of the International Criminal Court and other international and internationalized criminal tribunals.
• The General Part of International Criminal Law. The general principles governing the operation of specific crimes under international law will be studied. These principles shall cover the doctrine on, inter alia, the conduct and fault elements, inchoate offences such as attempts and instigation, complicity in crime, individual responsibility, defences and excuses and the principles for command and joint enterprise responsibilities.
• Crimes under International Law. The course will focus on the ‘core crimes’ under international law, viz. genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression. The elements of crime for these core crimes will be studied in some details. Additional crimes under or pursuant to international law may be examined in order to illustrate various aspects of international criminal justice and issues such as the gender perspective, the position of victims and human rights in international criminal proceedings.
• The Development of International Criminal Law. The subject of international criminal law will be studied in a developmental perspective. The crystallization of new general principles and substantive norms of international criminal law as well as the practical functioning of the existing system of international and internationalized criminal tribunals will be examined.

• Course syllabus JAMR35 (shown as PDF)
• Course literature JAMR35 (shown as PDF)
• Schedule Autumn 2023 (shown in TimeEdit's view)

Schedule is deemed preliminary until the course starts.

Course director: Senior Lecturer Christoffer Wong

The course is intended to be coordinated by a visiting researcher at the Faculty of Law or the Raoul Wallenberg Institute. Thus the focus of the course may shift depending on the visiting researcher’s research interests. The course will cover central themes relating to specific contemporary human rights issues, and the themes will vary from year to year depending on the contextual and international relevance of the human rights issues selected. The focus of the course is to provide the students with advanced and in-depth knowledge of the complexity and multi-layered challenges of protecting human rights, both from a legal and a policy perspective. As such the course will engage with various theoretical and practical angles, examine the various implications that possible responses to human rights violations would entail, and adopt an interdisciplinary approach which is indispensable to understanding the nature of contemporary human rights issues. The course will examine the relevant human rights issues taking into consideration the interaction of international human rights law with other branches of international law; its relationship with regional and domestic contexts; and the limitations of isolated approaches to tackling complex human rights issues typical of our contemporary times.

• Course syllabus JAMR46 (shown as PDF)
• Schedule Autumn 2023 (shown in TimeEdit's view)

Schedule is deemed preliminary until the course starts. 

Course director: Fulbright guest Professor David Kaye

The aim of the course is to give the skills that are required to respond to violations of the human rights, including when they take place on an extensive scale, through the use of available remedies at the international level. Such use requires in-depth knowledge of the right to efficient remedies and the international procedures that have been created to substantiate this right in practice. It also requires skill to argue convincingly both orally and in writing before these procedures, based on international legal sources to claim responsibility and remedy in connection with these violations. It finally requires an understanding of the role that non judicial remedies play, such as economic sanctions and the tensions between different theoretical perspectives on how human right violations should be responded to and prevented by the international society.

• Course syllabus JAMR50 (shown as PDF)
• Course literature JAMR50 (shown as PDF)
• Schedule Autumn 2023 (shown in TimeEdit's view)

Schedule is deemed preliminary until the course starts.

Course director: Professor Jessica Almqvist

The purpose of the course is to give the student an in-depth insight in a selected topic of international human rights law through writing a qualified essay on Master level.

Furthermore, the purpose is to enhance the ability of the student to conduct research and to practice the analytical skills and advanced argumentation and legal method that are required in an international and national legal profession.

• Course syllabus JAMM07 (shown as PDF)
• Schedule Spring 2024 (shown in TimeEdit's view)

Schedule is deemed preliminary until the course starts.

Course director: Professor Jessica Almqvist