Dr Monika Krause STC S207

This course is compulsory on the MSc in Human Rights. This course is available on the LLM (extended part-time), LLM (full-time), MSc in Gender, Peace and Security, MSc in International Migration and Public Policy and University of Pennsylvania Law School LLM Visiting Students. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

The course is capped but a limited number of places are usually available to students from outside the MSc in Human Rights who wish to take this as an option. Priority is given to postgraduate students in the Sociology Department and those registered on the LLM. The course is also available as an outside option for other MSc degrees where regulations and numbers permit. Students from other programmes who wish to apply for a place on SO424 must complete the online application form on LSEforYou stating reasons for wishing to take the course.

This is a multi-disciplinary course that provides students with a rigorous and focused engagement with different disciplinary perspectives on the subject of human rights including philosophy, sociology and international law. It provides students with contending interpretations of human rights as an idea and practice from the different standpoints that the disciplines present and investigates the particular knowledge claims and modes of reasoning that the respective disciplines engage. The course applies the insights of international law, philosophy and sociology to understand key human rights issues such as universality, the right to life, free speech, humanitarian intervention, war, genocide, human rights activism, globalization, and states of emergency.

This course is delivered through a combination of lectures, online materials and seminars totalling a minimum of 40 hours across MT and LT, with 2 hours in ST.

Reading Weeks: Students on this course will have a reading week in MT Week 6 and LT Week 6, in line with departmental policy.

Students will be expected to produce 1 essay in the MT and 1 essay in the LT.

Active participation in the workshops is expected and students will be asked to make a presentation to their group.

Indicative reading: No one book covers the entire syllabus and students are expected to read widely from more general texts on human rights, to more specific texts outlining the debates on human rights from a particular disciplinary perspective.

Introductory reading: Jack Donnelly, Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice; Michael Freeman, Human Rights; Philip Alston and Ryan Goodman, International Human Rights (2013).

Philosophy: P. Jones, Rights, (1994); A. Swift, Political Philosophy: A Beginners' Guide for Students and Politicians, (2006).

International Law: A. Cassese, International Law, 2nd ed. (2005), chapter 19; P. Sieghart, The Lawful Rights of Mankind (1985), S.Greer, The European Convention on Human Rights - Achievements, Problems and Prospects, Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Sociology: L. Morris, Rights: Sociological Perspectives (2006); B. Turner, Vulnerability and Human Rights (2006); A. Woodiwiss, Human Rights (2005).

Exam (70%, duration: 3 hours) in the summer exam period.
Essay (30%, 3000 words) in the ST.

An electronic copy of the assessed essay, to be uploaded to Moodle, no later than 4.00pm on the first Tuesday of Summer Term. 

Attendance at all classes and submission of all set coursework is required.