Admission requirements
Required course(s):
- Introduction to Socio-legal Studies
Description
This course examines the evolving body of law, norms and institutions that make up the human rights architecture. It introduces students to the core obstacles that policy-makers and practitioners face in promoting human rights compliance, including where other bodies of
law - for example religious law, customary law or indigenous law - may operate in parallel with the existing legal framework. It also considers emerging threats, such as climate change, migration and security, and how these might impact state-level as well as international responses. A large proportion of the course is dedicated to understanding the practical dilemmas associated with human rights programming – especially in contexts marked by weak rule of law, insecurity, low legal literacy or widespread discrimination – and how these might be overcome.
Course Objectives
At the end of this course, students should be able to:
Explain the evolution of human rights, and the interaction of processes in norm-setting, compliance and enforcement at the local, national and supranational levels;
Explain the roles played by human rights in different social contexts, notably in societies where customary and religious law are important;
Illustrate how access to justice tools and approaches can be used to promote human rights and overcome obstacles to realizing human rights;
Assess strengths and weaknesses of strategies to promote social justice via the casting of social and political problems into human rights language;
Devise strategies for promoting particular human rights, including by drawing on different theories of diffusion or uptake.
Students will gain the following practical skills from taking this course:
Oral advocacy skills
Ability to organize and chair a debate
Academic paper writing
Ability to work effectively in a group
Timetable
Timetables for courses offered at Leiden University College in 2024-2025 will be published on this page of the e-Prospectus.
Mode of instruction
This course will be based on a combination of short lectures, group discussions and group presentations. The course will take place synchronously during bi-weekly seminars.
Assessment Method
In-class participation
3 short reaction posts
Group presentations
Human rights analysis (brief memo)
Final essay (case study)
Reading list
Marks, Stephen M. 2016. Human Rights: A Brief Introduction.
Merry, S.E., 2008. Transnational Human Rights and Local Activism: Mapping the Middle. American Anthropologist 108, 38–51.
Mutua, Makau. 2001. “Savages, Victims, and Saviors: The Metaphor of Human Rights.” Harvard International Law Journal 42: 201.
Picq, M. L. 2012. Between the dock and a hard place: Hazards and opportunities of legal pluralism for indigenous women in Ecuador. Latin American Politics and Society, 54(2), 1-33.
Risse, T., Sikkink, K., 1999. Human rights norms into domestic practices: introduction, in: The Power of Human Rights: International Norms and Domestic Change. Cambridge University Press.
Registration
Courses offered at Leiden University College (LUC) are usually only open to LUC students and LUC exchange students. Leiden University students who participate in one of the university’s Honours tracks or programmes may register for one LUC course, if availability permits. Registration is coordinated by the Education Coordinator, course.administration@luc.leidenuniv.nl.
Contact
Dr. Lisa Harms, l.harms@law.leidenuniv.nl
Remarks
The reading list is indicative. A complete list of readings will be provided with the syllabus shortly before the beginning of the course.