Curriculum Guide · Courses

Professor Onuma

J.D. Seminar 1048 (cross-listed) | 2 credit hours

This seminar deals with problems relating to changing power constellations, as exemplified by the resurgence of China and India as possible superpowers in the 21st century, and its implications for and its impact on the international legal order. The seminar will first deal with the historical change in the ordering of the world: from the coexistence of regional systems such as Euro-centric, Islamo-centric and Sino-centric ones to Euro-centric and then to West-centric international order from the late 15th to the early 20th century. We will then analyze the basic frameworks and problems of the current international legal system such as the sovereign states system, the non-intervention principle, the subjects and participants in international legal processes, the legality and illegality of state behaviors and state responsibility, human rights, the settlement of international disputes and problems of judicial-centrism in the study of international law, the use of force by states and the problems of collective security system, and the predominance of West-centric discourse in global discursive space. The importance of doubting one’s own assumptions, presumptions, and what is “taken for granted” is a guiding principle of this seminar.

The required textbook for the seminar is ONUMA Yasuaki, A Transcivilizational Perspective on International Law (Martinus Nijhoff, Leiden/Boston, 2010). A list of recommended readings will be provided in the syllabus.

Recommended: A basic course in international law.

This course will meet in Spring 2012 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:20 p.m. - 3:20 p.m. on the following days: 2/14, 2/16, 2/28, 3/1, 3/13, 3/15, 3/20, 3/22, 3/27, 3/29, 4/3, 4/5 and 4/10.