510-642-6053
Prof. John Yoo
890 Simon
510-643-5089
This course meets Tuesdays from
3-6 in Room 122 in Boalt Hall. On
this website, you will find the course description, the reading assignments,
and announcements.
Announcements:
Recent developments have
brought issues of international law, politics, and morality to the fore. NATO's
bombing in Kosovo, the attempted extradition of General Pinochet, the collapse
of WTO negotiations in Seattle, the Russian invasion of Chechnya, ever-greater
disparities between the prosperity of the developed world and the poverty of
the undeveloped, and the increasing recognition of the global nature of
environmental problems -- all these raise profound questions of law, justice,
and the nature of national interests. This course will examine these
developments by attempting to develop a legal and ethical framework for the
analysis of international affairs. We will ask how different theories of
justice ought to apply to international affairs, or whether international
politics is governed only by considerations of power and national interest. We
will consider the question whether international law is really law or whether
other methods of analysis provide better explanations of international
behavior. The course will then examine how these different theories of justice
and international affairs apply to specific examples of international
politics. There are no prerequisites;
however, students ideally will be familiar basic concepts of international law
and/or political theory.
Evaluation:
Students
have the option to write a paper or a take-home examination. There may also be short, ungraded, but
required written assignments during the term.
Books:
All books may be ordered
through an on-line bookseller (such as www.amazon.com)
or in local bookstores. Due to the
small size of the course, we did not order books through the law school bookstore.
Required
for purchase (prices are approximate):
John
Rawls, Law of Peoples (LP), $15.75
Amartya
Sen, Development as Freedom (DF),
$12
Michael
Marrus, Documents on Nuremberg,
$13.50
Beitz
and Walzer, International Ethics
(IE), $19
Charles
Beitz, Political Theory and International
Relations (PT), $12
A number
of assigned readings are excerpts.
These will either be made available over the web or through several
copies placed on reserve in the law library reserve desk.