Message

F1417 Globalization, Ethics, Welfare and Human Rights (Global Challenges core)

Introduction

Nearly half of the world’s population survives on less than two dollars a day. A much smaller portion of the world’s population – living primarily in Europe, North America, and Japan – is extraordinarily rich in historical terms. What explains this extraordinary discrepancy in wealth and well being? What are the ethical and legal implications of global wealth and poverty? What have been the strategies, successes, and failures over the past half century of efforts on the part of poor countries, aided by rich ones, to develop their economies and societies in order to reduce poverty? What are the probable future challenges of ethics and global development?

In this course students will analyze some of the ethical and legal issues surrounding global poverty. Students will consider the extent and causes of global poverty, consider philosophical and legal sources of our obligation to the poor, and examine international efforts to promote poverty reduction and economic development.

The class will cover selections on international legitimacy, international democracy, sovereignty, just war, humanitarian intervention, and responsibility, along with relevant areas of law including international criminal law, human rights law, and health law.

 

Learning outcomes of the course

This course will give students a background in legal theory as applied to the global context and provide students an opportunity to acquire a significant knowledge on some of the most pressing issues facing the world today.

At the end of the course students should have:

- a genuine understanding of central ethical and legal debates on the positive and negatives aspects of globalization with reference to welfare, health and environment protection;
- developed insight into the problem of global justice and the protection of human rights and the different ways to deal with this topics;
- an improved ability to conduct research on international law in the key sectors of human rights, environment, health;
- the skill to write an essay on the most challenging issues concerning globalization;
- a deep comprehension of the concepts of humanitarian intervention and responsibility to protect and of the functioning of the UN Security Council.

 

The course also adds to students  development of  legal and ethical skills:
- through rigorous engagement with legal and philosophical debates, arguments and themes on globalization;
- through sustained encouragement to articulate sound ideas and arguments in class and through the draft of a written essay,  the elaboration of a report within a working group and a moot court competition.