Spring 2026
Professor(s):
Mary Ghandour (ADJUNCT)
Credits: 3
Course Areas: International Law
Time: 9:00a-12:00p F Location:
Course Outline: The course will discuss the modern system of international human right law, including its history, its various components and actors, its successes, and its flaws. We will examine the legal frameworks of both the United Nations and regional systems related to the protection of, inter alia, the rights of migrants and refugees, political and cultural rights, and human rights at the intersection of the law of armed conflict. Through primary legal texts, scholarly articles, and case studies, students will gain a foundational understanding of international human rights law and grapple with the growing critiques about its efficacy and enforceability, its colonial and imperial legacies, and the conflict between law and power.
Course Syllabus: Syllabus
Course Notes: (Face-to-Face) The UH registration system instruction mode for this course is listed in parenthesis. For this instruction mode, instructors and students are expected to normally be physically present in the classroom. If the course has a final examination, it will be in a classroom requiring your physical presence. Other assessment, such as a mid term exam, may also be in a classroom. Whether this instructor will offer “remote presence” (starting a zoom meeting from the podium computer to enable student remote access on an occasional basis) for part or all of the semester is not known, but students should not rely on an expectation that remote presence will be available.
Prerequisites:
First Day Assignments:
Final Exam Schedule:
This course will have:
Exam:
Paper:
Satisfies Senior Upper Level Writing Requirement: No
Experiential Course Type: No
Bar Course: No
DistanceEd ABA: No
Pass-Fail Student Election: Unavailable (Instructor Preference)
Course Materials
Book(s) Required
Course Materials: Ilias Bantekas & Lutz Oette, International Human Rights Law and Practice (4th edition, 2024). ISBN: 9781009306386
