LLAW6058 & JDOC6058
General Course Information
1.1 Course details
| Course code: | LLAW6058 / JDOC6058 |
| Course name: | Armed conflict, humanitarian law and human rights |
| Programme offered under: | LLM Programme / JD Programme |
| Semester: | First |
| Prerequisites / Co-requisites: | No |
| Credit point value: | 9 credits / 6 credits |
| Cap on student numbers: | 30 |
1.2 Course description
This course gives an introduction to the regulation of armed conflicts under international law. It begins with a theoretical enquiry into the morality of political violence in armed conflicts as sanctioned under international humanitarian law and then turns to the doctrinal law on the classification of armed conflicts and other situations of violence. The bulk of the course focuses on the legal rules governing the conduct of war and explores the relationship among international humanitarian law, international human rights law, jus ad bellum and international criminal law in complex factual scenarios. The course concludes by returning to theories and challenging course participants to reflect critically on the legal, moral and social significance of understanding a situation of political violence as an rmed conflict
1.3 Course teachers
| Name | E-mail address | Office | Consultation | |
| Course convenor | Ka Lok Yip | ka.yip@graduateinstitute.ch | N/A | By email or in person |
Learning Outcomes
2.1 Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) for this course
CLO 1 Understand, and be able to analyze, what amounts to an rmed conflict under international law.
CLO 2 Understand, and be able to analyze, the distinction between international and non-international armed conflicts under international law.
CLO 3 Evaluate, and be able to classify, a particular situation as an international armed conflict, a non-international armed-conflict or other situations of violence under international law.
CLO 4 Describe and explain different rules of international law applicable to different types of armed conflicts and other situations of violence, including jus ad bellum, jus in bello (or international humanitarian law or the law of armed conflicts), international human rights law, international criminal law and their inter-relationship.
CLO 5 Critically apply different rules of international law to concrete fact patterns of political violence.
CLO 6 Critically reflect on the legal and moral significance of classifying a situation as an armed conflict
2.2 LLM and JD Programme Learning Outcomes (PLOs)
Please refer to the following link:
LLM – https://course.law.hku.hk/llm-plo/
JD – https://course.law.hku.hk/jd-plo/
2.3 Programme Learning Outcomes to be achieved in this course
| PLO A | PLO B | PLO C | PLO D | PLO E | PLO F | |
| CLO 1 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 2 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 3 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 4 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 6 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Assessment(s)
3.1 Assessment Summary
| Assessment task | Due date | Weighting | Feedback method* | Course learning outcomes |
| Class participation | For the entire duration of the course | 10% | 1, 5 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
| Simulated practice | 27 Oct & 4 Nov 2020 | 40% (each weight 20%) | 1, 4, 5 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
| Research paper | 23 Dec 2020 | 50% | 1, 2, 3 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
| *Feedback method (to be determined by course teacher) | |
| 1 | A general course report to be disseminated through Moodle |
| 2 | Individual feedback to be disseminated by email / through Moodle |
| 3 | Individual review meeting upon appointment |
| 4 | Group review meeting |
| 5 | In-class verbal feedback |
3.2 Assessment Detail
Simulated practice:
There will be two simulated practice exercises.
Before the reading week and one week before the last class, a fact pattern of political violence will be distributed to the class and each student will be assigned a role (e.g. counsel to a party to an armed conflict/military commander/foot soldier/fighter/civilian/civil society organisation/international organisation/third state etc.) and will be asked a set of specific questions. For each simulated practice exercise, each student should submit a short position paper answering the specific questions in less than 800 words and present their arguments in a simulated international conference convened to address the situation. Depending on the final size of the class, students may or may not need to form any group. If any group needs to be formed, efforts will be made to minimize the efforts and logistics for preparatory collaboration.
Each simulated practice exercise will be graded based on the students understanding of the content of the course and their ability to apply their knowledge in simulated practice by formulating and presenting legal arguments in support, as demonstrated in the short position paper and the interactive presentation and argumentation in the simulated conference. For each simulated practice exercise, the short paper will count towards 15% of the total course grade and the interactive presentation and argumentation will count towards 5% of the total course grade.
The simulated practice will also be an opportunity to deepen the students engagement with the course content and to reflect on different perspectives on the issues studied in the course.
Research paper:
Students are expected to choose a topic covered in the course and write a research paper of no more than 5000 words (including footnotes). Students should submit their proposed topic and outline (of no less than 500 words) no later than the end of week 10 for feedback and guidance. The deadline for submission of the research paper is the last day of the term.
The paper will be graded based on students understanding of the content of the course and their ability to apply their understanding to the research topic of their choice to make a coherent argument. Extra credit will be given to innovative research topics.
3.3 Grading Criteria
Please refer to the following link: https://www.law.hku.hk/_files/law_programme_grade_descriptors.pdf
Learning Activities
4.1 Learning Activity Plan
| Seminar: | 3 hours / week for 12 teaching weeks |
| Private study time: | 9.5 hours / week for 12 teaching weeks |
Remarks: the normative student study load per credit unit is 25 ± 5 hours (ie. 150 ± 30 hours for a 6-credit course), which includes all learning activities and experiences within and outside of classroom, and any assessment task and examinations and associated preparations.
4.2 Details of Learning Activities
The first class and the second last class will be oriented towards theories while the other classes will focus on law and practice. The class after the reading week and the final class will be used to hold simulated conferences to give course participants the opportunity to review and reinforce what they have learnt on the course so far.
The course will be highly interactive. If any of the classes needs to be moved online, a special protocol will be made to ensure that each course participant will fully participate in class discussion even via video link.
At the beginning of the course, course participants will be invited to communicate their expectations on the course and suggest particular areas they would like to focus on in the course.
Learning Resources
5.1 Resources
| Core reading list: | There is no single textbook. Please refer to the detailed course outline on Moodle. |
| Recommended reading list: | Please refer to the detailed course outline on Moodle. |
5.2 Links
Please refer to the following link: http://www.law.hku.hk/course/learning-resources/