The taught modules offered on the LLM programme vary from year to year. Please check the full list of taught modules list for details of modules running in specific academic years. We make every effort to ensure that every module will be offered, but modules are subject to change and cancellation. You are therefore advised to check this site regularly for further updates throughout the year preceding entry to the LLM programme.
WAR LAW I: RECOURSE TO FORCE IN INTERNATIONAL LAW (LAWSG056A) Credit value: 15 credits (6 ECTS)
Module Convenor:
Dr Kimberley Trapp
Intercollegiate teaching: No
Teaching Method: 10 x two-hour seminars
Who may enrol: LLM students, SIL students
Prerequisites: None
Barred module combinations: This module cannot be taken with LAWSG056, which is a full module or with LAWSG056B
Practice Assessment: Students may write up tutorial questions and submit them for feedback as a form of formative assessment / exam practice.
Assessment method for LLM students: 2-hour unseen written examination
Assessment method for SIL students: 3,000 word essay
Module Overview
Module summary
The title for this module is a misnomer. There is no such thing as ‘war law’.
The module surveys rather the multi-faceted regulation of the use of force in international law. It deals with recourse to force in international law, or the jus ad bellum. The module covers the regulation of recourse to force in the United Nations Charter. We will discuss self-defence, enforcement measures taken by the UN, unilateral recourses to force and their legality, as well as (humanitarian) intervention and peacekeeping.
Module syllabus
(1) Introduction
The jus ad bellum
(2) From ‘Just War’ to the UN Charter Prohibition of the Use of Force (and back?)
(3) Use of Force in Self-Defence I: The Armed Attack
(4) Use of Force in Self-Defence II: Timing of Defensive Action & the ‘War on Terror’
(5) Collective Action against Threats to the Peace I: Non-forcible Measures
(6) Collective Action against Threats to the Peace II: Enforcement Action
(7) Humanitarian Intervention (and R2P)
(8) Peacekeeping Operations
(9) State (and individual?) responsibility for violations of the jus ad bellum
(10) Revision
Recommended materials
The first textbook on the list is preferred, but students remain free to choose.
• Christine D Gray, International Law and the Use of Force (3d ed Oxford UP 2008)
• Yoram Dinstein, War, Aggression and Self-Defence (4th ed Cambridge UP 2005)
• Thomas M Franck, Recourse to Force in International Law (Cambridge UP 2002)
Students should also have to hand the UN Charter, and the useful collections of materials in Malcolm D Evans (ed) Blackstone’s International Law Documents (9th ed Oxford UP 2009) and, if they wish, Adam Roberts and Robert Guelff (eds) Documents on the Laws of War (3d ed Oxford UP 2000)
Preliminary reading
Students who have not taken any general module in Public International Law before are strongly advised to read a general textbook in advance of commencing the course. A concise and elegant textbook is Vaughan Lowe, International Law (Oxford UP 2007).
Other students who wish to read in advance can also consult Lowe, above, Chapters 3 and 8, and are also advised to peruse some of the recommended materials and read the introductory chapters. A perusal of the Manual of the Law of Armed Conflict, issued by the UK Ministry of Defence and published by Oxford UP (2004) is also highly interesting and will give students a flavour of the practice of the law of armed conflict.
Other information: N/A
Prizes for this module: There are currently no prizes available for this module.
APPLICATION NOTICES
The application process for the 2013-14 academic session is open.
The deadline for applications to be received has been extended to Monday 1 July 2013
Please refer to the How to apply section for information on the application process.
