Learning objectives
a) Knowledge and understanding: the course has three parts.
The first introduces the international law system, situating it in relationship to the broader institutional structures of public international law and regulation, private ordering and multinational enterprise, non-governmental organization and transnational judicial cooperation.
The second is dedicated to the explanation of the religious, cultural, political and legal framework of the MENA region. This kind of analysis is premised by a brief introduction of the meaning and the approach to the cultural differences in an international context of activities and studies. This part of the course implies a deep investigation about the Islamic Legal System, which represents the particular feature of the Region.
The third explores the application of the HR theories within some particular fields of interest and issues of the selected area, notably, the property law and taxes, the competition between HR and business activities, the role of the state as an economic actor, the labor law, the contract law and arbitration, the activity and structures of corporations.
b) Applying knowledge and Understanding and c) Making judgments: during the lessons, students acquire basic knowledge of the International law system and the method of study the sources of the law and the different norms to apply in every legal/professional reasoning. Every block of lessons provides a final student class activity, in order to apply the set of skills and competence acquired assisting the lessons. The activities are not mandatory but can be evaluated as positive criteria for the final graduation.
d) Communicating skills: all the scheduled class activities require students to communicate with the Professor and with other members of the class. Furthermore, students may make practice of presenting technical arguments in public and in confrontation with others.
e) Learning skills: students may acquire an independent, culturally skilled and framed capacity to make legal reasonings within the framework of the international law and human rights system.
Prerequisites
Principles of Law and Society
Suggested reading:
Lawrence Rosen, "Law as Culture: An Invitation", Princeton 2006
Course unit content
Welcome to IMOL-MENA. This course provides an introduction to the field of international law and organization, examining the human rights’ (HR) theories and their applications, history of culture and ideas, legal doctrines, institutional and administrative structures developed over the last century to organize and legalize international economic and political life.
More in detail, the course focuses on the concrete application of those principles in a “regional” area, that is the MENA Region (Middle East and North Africa), also considering the particular role that this region currently plays into the global order.
For those reasons, the plan of the lessons is divided into three blocks: A. Introduction to the International Law system; B. The framework of the MENA Region; C. HR and International Institutions of the MENA Region.
Full programme
Introduction of the Course: Presentation, Terminology, and Useful Legal concepts; “Culture” as a Factor of the Global legal environment; International Law as History and culture: notion and actors; International Organizations: principles & issues; Sources of the Public International Law; International Law Principles and Issues: The Private International Law System; Business vs HRs; The MENA Legal and Cultural Framework: The Islamic Religion & Culture-Principles of Arabic Language; Insight: The Islamic Law today: the shari‘a in Egypt Islamic Economics’ Principles: A Short History of Islamic Economics; The “Islamic” Economic Paradigm and Methodology Institutional Framework and Key institutions and features of the Islamic Economic system; Property, Lands and Taxes; Property: concepts, land and applications; The state as an economic actor; taxes and zakat; Labor Law and HRs; The contracts: international, Islamic, intercultural approaches; Cross-cultural Negotiations; Making deals and Resolving Controversies: “Corporation”/making deals with foreigners: practical issues; Contract Law: International/Intercultural legal approaches.
Bibliography
- Emmanuelle Tourme Jouannet, Christopher Sutcliffe, A Short Introduction to International Law (Paperback), CUP, Cambridge, 2014
- Hossein Askari, Zamir Iqbal, Abbas Mirakhor: Introduction to Islamic Economics: Theory and Application, Wiley, Singapore, 2015, chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, and 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
Other bibliography will be suggested during the lessons.
Teaching methods
The course is divided into three blocks. Every block of lesson provides theoretical classes explanations of arguments and methods of studying issues and problems of the International Law and HR system. Every block provides also a not mandatory activity which can be also evaluated for the final graduation. The first activity is a legal case’s reading: notably, at home, before the lesson, each student will be asked to read the text of the selected legal decision. In class, divided in random groups, students have to lay down answers to issue-related questions.
The second activity is a group work, consisting in drafting an analytical report: at home, students must collect infos and, divided in small groups, lay down analytical reports concerning one of the countries of the MENA Region. Reports must focus on the following points: Public and Private Legal Systems; Economic outlook; Institutional framework (current political parties and leaders, cultural and social personalities, religious majorities & minorities); International Org. affiliations; HRs’ watch; Development perspectives, among others. In class, groups must present the results of their survey and deliver a written report.
The third activity is individual and interactive: each student must draw up a paper concerning a particular topic of the course, then send it to giancarlo.anello@unipr.it. Each student must personalize the topic: a reference to his/her own country would be positively assess, also perhaps from a comparative perspective. After receiving the final students’ papers, the Professor will choose the author of the most qualified paper to be the Coordinator of following “class round tables”. The Coordinator will introduce a panel of 5 or 6 discussants, host the discussion and manage the time. Other participants (Not coordinators) must prepare a 5min. presentation for the round-table discussion, and take part of the debate of the round table. Other students (Not round table members) can attend the round table and make questions.
Assessment methods and criteria
A) Attending students may take part of the class activities. They are not mandatory but can be positively evaluated for the final graduation: more in detail, students may take part to one, two, or three of the described activities, and gain a mark for each of them, then may request by an email an optional supplementary oral exam on fixed exam dates, which can raise or lower the mark from the class activities.
B) Not attending students must discuss an oral dissertation about two or more different arguments of the program. Answers will be assessed overall for knowledge, the ability to apply notions and theories, the capacity to communicate contents with appropriate terminology and language.
Other information
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