This course introduces students to the ways in which international law interacts with international
relations. International law is inherently political, and cannot be understood in isolation from either
domestic or international politics. The course examines the negotiation, use, design, and
consequences of international law for a wide range of actors in world affairs. Why do states agree to
create international agreements that limit their sovereignty (and do they?)? Why do international agreements differ
so much in their form and content? How and to what extent has international law facilitated the
achievement of common objectives? How much has international law shaped the foreign and
domestic policies of state and non-state actors? What is the future of international law in the face of
growing nationalist and populist trends?
Throughout the course we will pay special attention to evaluating both the logic and evidence
supporting various theories on the causes and consequences of international law. We will examine
how international law is formed and operates across a variety of substantive areas, including human
rights, armed conflict, economics affairs, and the environment.
By the end of this course, students will demonstrate the ability to:
- Identify the main sources of international law and their development over time.
- Define and describe the core assumptions of the canonical interactions in international
relations, including the prisoner’s dilemma, coordination problems, and general collective
action problems. - Summarize theories about why states and other actors commit to international legal
agreements, and determine whether empirical evidence supports or falsifies those theories. - Summarize theories about whether and how international law affects the behavior of states
and other actors, and determine whether empirical evidence supports or falsifies those
theories. - Compare and contrast different international legal agreements, particularly regarding the
problems they are intended to solve and how they solve them, as well as their institutional
design and operation. - Based on real-world or hypothetical scenarios, make policy recommendations regarding the
creation and/or consequences of international legal agreements by drawing on theory and
empirical evidence.