The Course in Detail

Course Requirements

Basic Links Page

Readings

Notes

Assignments

E-Mail Archive

List of Regimes for Analysis

Text Web

INTRODUCTION FOR 2003

This is the first page of the course web for the 2003 offering of International Law (Political Science 122 in the Winter Term at the University of California, Davis).  Other pages in the web can be accessed from the index on the left.

This is a course that has strong traditions as the only large undergraduate class in international environmental law and policy offered at the University.  Moreover, the course is part of a growing migration of college and university courses to the Web. This is a trend in which the Department of Political Science and the International Relations Program are recognized leaders.  Some of the exciting work done by students in previous offerings of the course can be seen on the "Awards of Excellence" site.

The UC Davis Catalog describes the course as International Law, but the specific focus of this offering is always on a range of legal, policy, and institutional issues arising from the global trends and conditions that affect the world's environment, trade, development, and biotechnology. 

CAVEAT

A great deal of a student's work in this course involves the use of computers and Web editing software in a computer lab.  Students begin work in the lab on research and writing projects, which can later be polished and completed either in campus computer labs or on personal workstations at home.  The course, therefore, has a schedule that involves both classroom time, in 206 Olson Hall and computer lab time in 27 Olson Hall, where there are three reserved times for the labs: Mondays from 9:00 to 10:50 a.m. and from 3:10 to 5:00 p.m. and Wednesdays from 3:10 to 5:00 p.m.  Every student in the course must be enrolled in one of the three course sections, each of which has a unique combination of classroom and lab time. 

Because it has an unconventional structure, this course makes unusual demands on students, right from the  start.  It is extremely important, therefore, to think hard about the commitments this course demands, and to decide during the first week of term whether you are prepared, this year, for the work involved. As the old saying has it, "forewarned is forearmed."