Prof Gerry Simpson NAB 6.13

This course is available on the Master of Laws and Master of Laws (extended part-time study). This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course is part of the Public International Law specialism.

This course is capped at 30 students. Students must apply through Graduate Course Choice on LSE for You.

This course builds on Rethinking International Law I: International Law and Contemporary Problems. The idea is to study the life of international law through its intellectual history, its presiding methods, its recurrent projects, its contemporary character and its utopian speculations. We will begin by teasing out a debate about the meaning of juridical humanity before turning to the problem of war through an examination of the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War. There will be at least three seminars on international legal history and historiography where we will read international legal history (Jouannet, Megret, Craven, Anghie, Pahuja, Drew) alongside histories of political thought (Brett, Armitage, Wight, Hunter, Moyn) before going on to consider the different lives of international law (e.g. sentimental (Simpson) and anthropological (Eslava)). The course ends with a sympathetic engagement around utopian texts (Allott, 2016; Jameson, 2005; Vladimiri, 1417, Luxembourg, 1915).

20 hours of seminars in the LT. 2 hours of seminars in the ST.

Students are expected to have done the set reading and be willing to participate in seminar discussion.

There will be a Reading Week in Week 6.

One 2,000 word essay.

Reading lists will be provided for each seminar on Moodle. Readings likely to be set include a selection of international legal texts (including work-in-progress and "new authors") and readings from the fields of intellectual history, 18th century literature and political theory. The key works are by Koskenniemi, Anghie, Kennedy, Allott and Schmitt.

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours, reading time: 15 minutes) in the main exam period.