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When and how can a State defend itself against armed attacks by non-State armed groups? Is Russia legally responsible for the acts of separatists in Ukraine? Or is Iran legally responsible for Houthi attacks against merchant shipping in the Red Sea? Is ‘Islamic State’ a state? Is Palestine a state? Could the UK lawfully pull out of the European Convention on Human Rights? Can the UK be held responsible for its role in the CIA’s programme of ‘extraordinary rendition’? Just what is the International Court of Justice? And what does it mean when the Court delivers a provisional measures order in cases like Gambia v Myanmar and South Africa v Israel?

The module aims to explore these sorts of questions by introducing you to the characteristic legal techniques and central doctrinal concerns of public international law, the law governing the conduct of states, international organizations and certain other actors on the international plane.

Public international law is a whole new legal system, relative to what you will know of domestic law. The module begins with a brief introduction to the nature, history and conceptual underpinnings of public international law: : how we came to have the system we have, and some questions about how international law works today, and can work in future. We then examine topics like the sources of international law, in particular customary international law and the law of treaties; legal criteria of statehood and the law on the creation of states; the law governing title to territory; the law governing the assertion and exercise of jurisdiction, especially criminal jurisdiction, by states, as well as immunity from such exercise; the law regulating states’ recourse to armed force; the law of state responsibility; the law regulating the peaceful settlement of international disputes; and the relationship between international and English law.

Public international law will be of interest to anyone who takes an interest in international affairs. In professional terms, it is indispensable for those keen to join the ranks of the increasing numbers of barristers and solicitors whose practice involves advising states and private clients on the ever-wider range of issues affected by international treaties (from environmental regulation to investment to adoption), or challenging governmental action abroad before the English courts; for those thinking of working, in a legal or diplomatic capacity, for the Foreign & Commonwealth Office or its foreign equivalents, for an international organisation like the United Nations or for an international judicial institution like the International Criminal Court; and for those interested in a legal career in a non-governmental organisation like Amnesty International or Greenpeace. For those interested in jurisprudence or legal theory, too, public international law offers an intriguing perspective on a wholly new legal system, of real importance to how we are governed today.

Recommended texts: J Crawford, Brownlie's Principles of Public International Law (9th edn, 2019); M Evans (ed.), International Law (5th edn, 2018)

Recommended background reading: J Klabbers, International Law (3rd edn, 2021); V Lowe, International Law (2007)