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THE 2003 INTERNATIONAL LAW COURSE IN DETAIL: SYLLABUS

INSTRUCTOR: Geoffrey Wandesforde-Smith, Department of Political Science and Director, Political Science and International Relations Internship Programs. Home page.  Office: 1263 Social Sciences. Office Hours: Fridays, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., and by appointment.  Phone messages at (530) 752-0966. Fax: (530) 752-8666. 
E-mail: gawsmith@ucdavis.edu

PAGE NAVIGATION INDEX:  Computer Skills  |  Implications for Enrollment  |  Class Meetings  |  Purpose and Approach  |  Tentative Schedule  |  First Week Check List  |  Table of Deadlines

The Emphasis on Computer and Network Skills in the Study of International Law

The publication of this syllabus and preliminary course outline on the Web is a sign that in this day and age those who want to teach and learn about international law need to master new tools. The Web is a vital supplement to the traditionally rich resources of the library and puts new tools and materials at the disposal of students and teachers, as well as practitioners.  The truth of this statement is borne out by the textbook for the course, which has its own Web site and makes systematic use of Web resources, as well as the traditional hard-copy materials on which law and lawyers have always relied.  The words "Text Web" to the left are a direct link to the Internet resources assembled by the textbook authors.

The range of relevant and useful on-line resources for the modern study of International Law include (a) international law itself, (b) a wealth of information about global environmental issues and about the institutions, governmental and nongovernmental, that seek to make decisions about those issues, (c) an increasing number of on-line journals and discussion papers, and (d) information that helps us understand the political, economic, and scientific background to decisions that international environmental law and policy try to shape.

People in law schools, law firms, and the legal offices of public and private corporations have been using computer and network resources for research and analysis for quite some time, chiefly in the form of subscriber services offered by Westlaw and Lexis-Nexis.  These commercial law resources are generally unavailable to undergraduates, although the University does now provide access to Academic Universe, a Lexis-Nexis research and information service.  Academic Universe is accessible through the Electronic Databases section of the Shields Library web.

Implications for Students of the Course Format

This general context has two very specific implications:

(1). By the end of the fourth week of term, the class will be operating on the assumption that each and every student is familiar with the Web, knows how to access and navigate the Web through a browser, and has learned the fundamentals of building and editing Web pages.  Instruction in these Web skills will be provided through the scheduled sessions in the computer lab.  Students will need to purchase a zip disk and bring it to each and every lab workshop, including the first one.  Web page editing will be done using Microsoft Front Page 2000, which is already installed on the lab machines as a result of a gift of software from Microsoft Research.

There will be some students in the course who bring with them good working Web skills from courses they have already taken, such as Environmental Politics (Political Science 107). Other students who do not have this previous preparation and background and who may feel, therefore, that they will have trouble keeping up with the computing and network requirements of the course should drop the class, promptly.

(2). In addition to creating individual Web pages, students will also manage a small Web site, i.e. students will design, produce, and publish several active pages on a web server.   These design, production, and management tasks will be carried out in small groups.   

It has long been customary for students of law to form study groups.  Students in this course will form their own study groups or research teams as quickly as possible and not later than the end of the first week of term.  A group or team must have at least two but may not have more than three members. It is extremely desirable that students with no previous Web experience who decide, nevertheless, to stay in the course should join a team in which at least one member does have prior experience.  The teams will be formed within the sections of the course that meet in the computer lab, so that students in the same team can meet and work together in the lab.

It follows from the preceding statements that adding the class after the first week of term is not recommended, at all. 

CLASS MEETINGS: Mondays and Wednesdays, at 2:10 p.m. in 1204 Haring Hall AND by section in the computer lab and classroom in 27 Olson Hall on Mondays, 9:00 to 11:50 a.m. [Section A02, CRN 77792], OR Mondays, 3:10 to 5:00 p.m. [Section A01, CRN 77791], or Wednesdays, 3:10 to 5:00 p.m. [Section A03, CRN 77793]

PURPOSE AND APPROACH: One of the favorite and perennial issues in international law is whether or not it actually exists in anything like the same form or with anything like the same meaning and effect as the domestic law we are all able to recognize as something that must be respected.  We shall take the view that to an appreciable extent international law does have meaning and effect and that there are, therefore, legal norms that govern, more or less, relations between sovereign states when it comes to dealing with environmental problems. The extent to which international law is obeyed --  respected would be a better word --  is not primarily, however, a product of law enforcement, litigation, and judicial process. Nor is it principally shaped by the behavior and performance of an international civil service organized into bureaucratic agencies to implement law.  The forces leading to compliance with international law are broadly political, and reach well beyond the realms of diplomacy and military threat that most people readily associate with international relations.

There are, for example, large numbers of treaties and agreements in force (more than a thousand, in fact) dealing with global and regional environmental issues, and with matters of trade, development, and human rights. These various sources of "black letter" international law form an important part of the substance of our subject.  But we must resist the temptation to treat these legal instruments as if they were the equivalents of what international lawyers call "municipal" law, which would mean in our case the statutes of the United States and of the several states of the Union.  Similarly, while there are international courts and tribunals for adjudicating disputes, courts have far less influence on shaping the impact and meaning of international law than they do in shaping domestic law. 

It is also important to try to avoid thinking of international governmental organizations (IGOs) as if they were the equivalents of state and federal government agencies and of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as if they were interest groups.  

Thus, we shall try to avoid the realist view that international law is a myth and can have no force or effect in the face of powerful sovereign states.  But neither shall we fall into the trap of thinking that because international law is law it ought to work simply and straightforwardly in much the same way and through much the same sorts of institutions as we see at work in the realm of domestic or municipal law.  

Our perspective is rather that a great many international political activities and processes are bringing into existence more and better legal instruments to protect resources and environments.  These "processes of global change" are usually evolutionary rather than revolutionary.  And they will be the central objects of student research and writing in this course.   To examine these processes we shall learn how to use powerful modern tools of global, networked communication -- tools which are themselves helping to shape the emergence of a more coherent and powerful international law. 

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE: Work in the course can be divided into several units or blocks, some of which will be pursued in the classroom and some in the lab.

BLOCK I. Weeks 1-4.  January 6th to January 29th.

• Setting Up for the Course 

• Learning and Practicing Basic HTML and Web Design Skills. 

• The Legalization of International Problem Solving

• Fundamentals of International Law: Concepts, Sources, Application.

• The Treaty Regime

• Treaty Text Analysis: How to Examine the History of Treaty Making and the Operative Theories of International Law

• Choosing Project Topics and Research Team Memberships. 

• Relevant reading in Chapters 1 through 4, 6, and 7 of the main text will be assigned in the classroom and during the labs. 

At the end of this block of work each individual student in the course and each research team will have created a Web site and installed it on the server.  Each individual student will have completed an analytical essay, "Understanding the Basics of International Law," and will have published it as a web page linked to the larger web site.  And each research team will have completed the first team research report on Treaty Text Analysis.
 

BLOCK II. Weeks 5-6.  February 3rd to February 12th.

• The Role of Non-State Actors in International Law Making and Enforcement.

• COPs, Subsidiary Bodies, Preparatory Meetings, Conferences, Forums, and Working Groups.

• International Governmental Organizations and International Law.

• Non-Governmental Organizations and International Law.  

• This unit covers selected materials in the main text from Chapter 5 and from the chapter dealing with the treaty regime selected by the student research team for analysis.  Specific readings will be assigned in the classroom and the labs.

At the end of this block of work each research team will have completed the team research report on The Role of Non-State Actors.

BLOCK III. Week 7-8.  February 17th to February 26th.

• The Problem of Compliance in International Law

• "It's all about capacity, stupid!": Understanding Capacity at the Sovereign State and International Levels

• Negative Pressures on Compliance: Global and Domestic

• Identification of Specific State Contributions to a Treaty Regime

• This unit covers selected materials in the main text from Chapter 8 and from the chapter dealing with the treaty regime selected by the student research team for analysis.  Specific readings will be assigned in the classroom and the labs.

At the end of this block of work each research team will have completed the team research report on Compliance and Enforcement in International Law.

BLOCK IV. Week 9-10. March 3rd to March 12th.

• Review and Reflection on the Impacts and Effectiveness of International Law

• What Works in International Law?

• Who Makes International Law Work, If It Does Work?

• How Can Effectiveness in International Law Be Sensibly Defined and Measured?

• Are There Identifiable (Pre)Conditions for the Success of International Law, Globally and Domestically, and What Are They?

At the end of this block of work each research team will have completed the team research report on The Success and Effectiveness of International Law: Review and Reflection.  And each individual student will have completed the take home final examination, due at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 19th, 2003.

FIRST WEEK CHECK LIST: Do all of the following before January 10th:  

• (a) Buy the textbook (identified in the Readings file). There will be no reserve copy in Shields Library. 

• (b) Verify the status of your campus computer account and double-check that you know how to manage your e-mail using Microsoft Outlook, Eudora, or an e-mail program that can be accessed through your Web browser using, for example, myUCDavis. 

• (c) Buy a zip disk and bring it to the first lab session you attend.  A 100MB zip disk is sufficient.  The disk must be formatted to work in a Windows machine.

TABLE OF APPROXIMATE DEADLINES

Go, now, to the Readings and Course Requirements pages of the Web for more information about these topics.

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