Document Type

Undergraduate Syllabus

Date

Fall 2026

School

Diplomacy

Course Number

DIPL 3104 NA

Course Description

International law is a central framework for theorizing the international society of states. This course offers an introduction to public international law as a dynamic and contested topic through a wide array of issues that concern not only states and governments, but also international organizations, non-governmental organizations, international lawyers, and civil societies.

After the Second World War, public international law was re-envisioned with a promise to protect the sovereignty and integrity of vulnerable states against aggression, guarantee the self-determination of peoples, and to work towards fulfilling universal human rights in an interconnected world. However, the new global order maintained a structure that favored imperial powers of the past, even as this structure is constantly being challenged by new power arrangements and ideological matrices. International lawyers and scholars have been debating these internal tensions and the relationships between law and power, universalism and particularism, and hierarchy in international society from various theoretical positions. Consequently, our focus will not only be the doctrines of international law, but on the power of law and law’s uses of power from a multitude of critical perspectives.

The first half of this course will provide an understanding and offer critiques of the basic norms, modern doctrines, and theories of public international law, as well as a study of international law as a field of practice comprised of various actors, such as the United Nations, international tribunals, nonstate actors, civil societies, peoples, and individuals. The second half of the course addresses the main areas of international law, such as human rights, the law of armed conflict, international criminal law, and international environmental law. Throughout this class, we will examine a host of fundamental questions, including, for example, whether international law is actually law, why states comply with international law (when they do), what are the legacies of colonialism and imperialism that survive in today’s world, how can human rights be enforced and promoted, when military or humanitarian intervention is justified, and what drives change in international law.

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