International Human Rights Law
Faculty
Description
International human rights come to one of the most important issues in the contemporary world, getting more people involved in legislation, administration and judicatory both at international and domestic planes. In the class, we will examine the current situation of human rights norms: to what extent those are actually observed, whether the current systems are sufficient for the desirable world, and if not, what policies we should adopt. For this purpose, we will not only try to understand the current human rights systems, but also discuss its background in terms of history and theory, paying much attention to international law in general.
Materials in the class should include relevant precedents in Japan, decisions and general comments by the relevant organs in the human rights treaties of which Japan is a contracting party. We will also refer to the decisions and judgments delivered by the committees and commissions of human rights treaties in Europe and America, which are useful for the better understanding of the above documents. Not only judicial materials should we also examine relevant documents such as governments' statements, UN resolutions and NGO statements.
Each class mainly consists of lectures followed by some discussions on concrete cases and incidents. We may also invite as lecturers from outside the University practitioners, activists and lawyers in human rights movement, and officials of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Justice.