Tag(s)
M:GJ
Admission Requirements
Similarly-tagged 100-level course.
Description
This course is designed to train students in the application of advocacy, legal methodology, argumentation, and problem-solving skills. Students will be asked to develop strategies, as well as present and defend opinions, on the basis of specific cases and problems in international law and policy. This will include provision of advice, litigation of specific legal problems, and development of conflict resolution strategies. The course will also explore issues surrounding legal ethics and practice. The primary objective of this course is give a sense of the day-to-day challenges facing the practicing lawyer in an international legal context. With this objective in mind moot court exercises will be conducted during the course, with a view to enhancing the written and oral advocacy skills of students.
Course Objectives
Upon completion of the course, students should be able to:
Employ various methods of legal reasoning.
Analyse statutes, cases, and other sources of law.
Discern relevant facts and apply a legal principle to those facts.
Understand the mechanics of a case in an international legal context.
Prepare and argue written and oral motions on a variety of issues.
Have a sense of the challenges encountered in the courtroom.
Appreciate the importance of case strategy.
Understand the relevance of legal ethics.
Mode of Instruction
Seminars (two 2-hour sessions per week, Weeks 1 – 7) will form the main body of this course, and a blackboard site will support in-class discussion, debate, and court simulations, as well as host readings and multi-media material. Further information with respect to compulsory reading can be found in the course syllabus. For details of how the course will proceed, see sections below on “Assessment” and “Weekly overview”.
Assessment
Interactive engagement with course material
In-class participation
10%
Personal Code of Professional Ethics
Written Assignment
10%
Practice of advocacy skills – negotiation exercise
In-class participation
10%
Written assignment – memorandum to principal
Written assignment
10%
Practice of litigation skills – moot court exercise
In-class participation
10%
Practice of litigation skills – written arguments
Written assignment
10%
Expression of holistic understanding of the course
Examination
40%
Literature
There is no one core compulsory text relevant to this course, rather materials will be made available on BlackBoard and via links to available online resources. Students are urged to pay particularly close attention to the course Blackboard site, which will be used as an active space for both practical and in class discussion purposes. Students will be expected to click the link for themselves, within the Leiden network, and report any difficulties – some items will not be uploaded onto BlackBoard for reasons of copyright.
Contact Information
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Weekly Overview
WEEK 1: INTRODUCTION & OVERVIEW
WEEK 2: ADVOCACY
WEEK 3: NEGOTIATIONS & INTRODUCTION TO LITIGATION
WEEK 4: LITIGATION
WEEK 5: LITIGATION CONTINUED
WEEK 6: LITIGATION FIELD TRIP & EXERCISE REVIEW
WEEK 7: REVIEW
Preparation for first session
Please write one sentence about yourself and another about why you’re interested in the class. Do not write “because it is required.”