Public International Law

This course provides an introductory survey of public international law as a discipline and a political enterprise through the lens of the function of international legal system, its norms, processes, institutions, actors and participants. We will tackle a few legal doctrinal questions ranging from sources of international law to regulation of the use of force, humanitarianism, forceful intervention, and more with an eye on the shrinking lines between the domestic and the international and another on the changing notion of the ‘international’. Throughout, our doctrinal investigation will take aid from both theoretical literature and historical and contemporary state of international political life to weigh the possibilities and limitations of international law in global affairs.