Admission requirements
Required course(s):
None.
Recommended course(s):
- International & Regional Human Rights
Description
This course offers a legal and philosophical study of the origins of human rights and highlights the relevance of this knowledge for a full understanding of human rights in today’s societies and cultures across the world. This course starts by studying the current human rights paradigm, the language of which is a modern language, that emerged particularly in the 17th and 18th century, its culmination in the US Bill of Rights (1791) and the Déclaration des Droits de l’Homme et du Citoyen (1789). Students will closely read these primary sources with the aim to explore the further developments of the language of rights in the 20th century in particular, which brought a great extension of the number and application of human rights. Once this is covered, students will delve into a more ancient history of ethics, and study human rights as a field of ethics which is connected to duty and virtue ethics. Some emphasis will therefore be given to natural law in which human rights are deeply founded. We will delve into the classical and medieval scholarship on natural law, starting with Plato’s and Aquinas’ views on right and wrong. This will be compared to the modern views on the same going back to Hobbes and Locke, the latter considered to be the founding father of the rights paradigm. Students will understand how the legal relativist view on rights differs from the natural law perspective to rights. For this students will look into the application of human rights post WWII. Human rights in today’s traditional societies will be investigated in order to highlight that in traditional societies duties and virtues still play a prominent role. Students will also look into a variety of case law and interpretations of human rights laws that touch upon contentious, and often politicized disputes between classical liberalism and equality. Students will also explore cases from different perspectives (the modern and the traditional) in order to understand different meanings and outcomes human rights have in different societies, be they individualistic or collectivist or hybrids. This course does not shy away from addressing and analyzing criticism human rights have always been subject to, most particularly criticism voiced mainly in traditional societies, that human rights have become separated from human duties. The aim of all this learning is to discover where human rights came from, what they have become and which meaning can be drawn from this evolution for the future of human rights.
Course Objectives
Knowledge:
Goal 1: comparative analysis of ancient and current human rights/human rights texts
Goal 2: comparative analysis of virtue ethics, duty ethics and rights ethics with the aim to critically assess the origins of human rights and their evolution and how they shaped the current rights paradigm
Goal 3: comparative analysis of natural law and legal positivism in relation to the universality of human rights and international justice
Goal 4: understanding the difference between the promotion of human rights in an individualistic system versus a collectivistic system
Skills:
Goal 1: identification and articulation of national, regional and global contexts, in current times as well as historically, relating to international (human rights) justice
Goal 2: researching and explaining a moral position on a number of issues concerning human rights and culture
Goal 3: adopting an interdisciplinary to the subject matter by close reading, studying and comparing primary and secondary historical and philosophical sources, as well as current sources
Goal 4: critical academic assessment of a variety of perspectives on human rights
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
The main method of instruction is the Socratic method, supplemented at times by short lectures. This course emphasizes interactive in class discussion, individual participation as well as group work. Students will be guided by the instructor to participate actively for each session by reading and thoroughly preparing the assigned materials and exercises. The instructor takes the liberty to facilitate the discussion among all students or to ask questions ‘on the spot.’
Assessment Method
Participation (15%)
Essay (15%)
Case analysis (15%)
Film review (15%)
Final presentation (15%)
Final essay (25%)
Reading list
Texts:
Small excerpts by Plato – Hobbes – Locke - Thomas Aquinas - Alexei du Tocqueville - Henry Sumner Maine - Samuel Pufendorf – Rousseau (TBA)
UDHR and other Human rights texts to be found online
US Declaration of Independence 1776 + US Bill of Rights (1791)
Déclaration des Droits de l’Homme et du Citoyen (1789)
Supreme court case Obergefelle vs Hodges (online – selection)
Federalist Papers (small selection) (FP)
Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem, (1963), chapter VIII (135-151) (HA)
Guide on Article 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights
Radbruch, 5 Minutes of Legal Philosophy (1945)
Reginald Parker, Legal Positivism, Notre Dam Law Review, Vol 32, Iss. 1
M.L.King, Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963)
Other case law, legal, historical and traditional texts and additional materials to be announced where relevant and to be found mostly online
Film list:
Un Specialiste - on the Eichmann trial and legal positivism
The Society of the Snow – on human survival during crisis
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. Naema Tahir, tahirnn@luc.leidenuniv.nl
Remarks
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