The law and practice of human rights currently faces a key challenge: although there is a proliferation of treaties, adjudicative bodies, campaigning, activism, and research in this area, serious human rights abuses persist around the world. This module explores a range of contemporary human rights issues, looking at the doctrinal and practical scope and limits of the law, and the challenges that arise in pursuing the prevention of abuses and protection of rights.
Pre-requisite modules
Co-requisite modules
- None
Prohibited combinations
- None
Occurrence | Teaching period |
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A | Semester 1 2023-24 |
The module aims, as part of the overall LLB programme, to enable students to develop new and further critical perspectives on law, whilst progressively developing core academic and legal skills.
The law and practice of human rights currently faces a key challenge: although there is a proliferation of treaties, adjudicative bodies, campaigning, activism, and research in this area, serious human rights abuses persist around the world.
This module aims to introduce students to a range of contemporary human rights issues with global dimensions. In doing so, there are several core themes that students will be encouraged to consider, such as:
The balance of plenaries (9 x 1-hour) and seminars (8 x 2-hour) is designed to enable human rights practice to be brought into the module, including through plenaries, and to reflectively develop academic and legal skills in a way that provides a strong base for pursuing any area of law in Year 3 modules.
By the end of the module, students should be able to do the following within the broad field of human rights, and with attention to the scope and limits of the ways in which law can prevent and address human rights abuses:
Substantive topics covered will vary from year to year as the module aims to present a range of legal, interdisciplinary, and practical perspectives. Plenaries will be delivered by academics from York Law School, the Centre for Applied Human Rights, and visiting speakers.
Topics in previous years provide a guide to the type of matters covered in the module. Past topics have included:
Task | % of module mark |
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Essay/coursework | 100 |
None
The assessment for this module will be by 3,000 word essay, worth 100% of the module mark. This method of assessment allows students to pursue an area of interest in depth and requires students to apply and demonstrate skills of research, analysis, and argument across a range of the module learning outcomes.
Formative work will include regular short informal presentations by students that require them to demonstrate a grasp of literature and issues related to specific topics, to apply the material in the readings to contemporary issues, and to formulate questions about the readings and issues that highlight uncertainties and challenges in human rights law, commentary, and practice. Guidance will be provided in plenaries and feedback will be provided by tutors.
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
Students will receive ongoing feedback from tutors and peers on developing their understanding and skills during seminars.
Guidance, feedback on skills, and formative feedback will be provided through seminars and plenaries.
Feedback on summative assessment will be provided through written comments on assessed work.
Feedback will be provided within the Policy Turnaround Time
There is no core text for this module. There will be readings and seminar instructions posted to the VLE, with readings directly linked from the Reading List where possible. The sources below may be useful in providing a sense of the scope of issues and institutions with which human rights law and practice engage. However, there is a vast literature on human rights – the course readings and your own research will take you well beyond these few sources.