International Law

Human rights in constitutions

Compare and contrast the constitutions of Finland, Brazil and South Africa from the human rights perspective
- focus especially on
* justice
* equality
* liberty

Discussion questions/ Tuesday 17.12.2024


Use your course book pp. 57-66 and Heywood, Chapter 13 ( p. 303 onwards) and discuss the questions with your group. Come back at 10.30 to share your views.

1) How does international law differ from domestic law?

2) What are the sources of international law?
 
3) Why is international law obeyed?
 
4) How and why has international law changed in recent years?
 
5) What are the implications of holding individuals responsible for violat-
ing international humanitarian law?

6) To what extent is it fair to say that international law is a  law?
 
7) How and why have treaties become the most
important source of international law?
 
8) Why is it in the interest of states to obey interna-
tional law?

9) How strong is the moral motivation for states’
compliance with international law?
 
10) What are the implications of the ‘constitutionalist’
conception of international law for international
jurisprudence?
 
11) To what extent are ‘international’ and ‘world’ law
compatible?
 
12) To what extent is humanitarian intervention justifiable in interna-
tional law?


13) Is a state’s right to sovereignty conditional, and if
so, on what?
 
14) Is the notion of crimes against humanity too vague
and confused to be legally meaningful?
 
15) Should political leaders be held individually culpa-
ble for breaching international humanitarian law? How should it be done?