| Week |
Course Content |
| Week 1 |
1. What is PIL?
2. What is legal personality?
3. What precisely constitutes the sovereign state?
4. What are the main sources of PIL?
5. What is the basic principle underlying the law of treaties?
6. What is international custom?
7. What are subsidiary means in Art. 38 of ICJ Statute?
|
| Week 2 |
1. Where does PIL come from?
2. Why are sovereign States legally bound by customary PIL?
3. What evidence do courts consider to determine if a new rule of customary PIL has developed?
4. How do treaties affect the development of customary PIL?
5. Can the rule in a treaty be applied to a state that is not bound by the treaty if the rule is also part of customary PIL?
|
| Week 3 |
Please provide and discuss two examples illustrating the fact that states possess the most full-blown form of legal personality under PIL. Moreover, please discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the fact that states are still the primary subjects in the field of international law-creation. |
| Week 4 |
1. What are the necessary characteristics of a state?
2. Is Taiwan a state in the view of PIL?
3. How is it determined when a new state is formed?
4. Who acts on behalf of the state for purposes of PIL?
5. What happens when there is a revolutionary change of government? Does the state stay the same?
|
| Week 5 |
6. Can one part of a state secede from the rest and become a separate state?
7. What are differences between Quebec-Canada and Catalonia-Spain?
8. The former Yugoslavia broke apart into several different countries: Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Serbia & Montenegro (still one country) and Bosnia & Herzegovina (one country). The Albanian population of Kosovo successfully got to be independent from Serbia. What legal considerations apply to these claims for independence?
9. Follow the Q8 above, do you think that the independence of Taiwan has no chance of success?
|
| Week 6 |
1. What purpose do international organizations serve?
2. Why does it matter if an international organization has international legal personality?
3. Do international organizations have authority over States?
4. Should international organizations have the same rights as states? Why or why not?
|
| Week 7 |
1. What is the importance of nationality under PIL?
2. How do individuals gain nationality?
3. How do immigrants or transnational corporations gain nationality?
4. What is diplomatic protection?
5. Who may bring a claim for diplomatic protection under PIL?
6. Is nationality a question of national law or of PIL?
|
| Week 8 |
If mainland China is the territory of the Republic of China, then where is the effective government of the Republic of China? If Taiwan is the territory of China, then where is the effective government of China? Are China and the People’s Republic of China the same country? How do you interpret United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758? Does the resolution mention Taiwan? If not, what is the purpose of this resolution? |
| Week 9 |
1. What is a treaty?
2. How do states express their consent to be bound by treaties?
3. What is a reservation to a treaty?
4. What is the difference between a reservation, an understanding and a declaration made when ratifying a treaty?
5. Why do states make reservations to treaties?
6. When are reservations unacceptable?
7. Are the HRC’s conclusions about the consequences of an unacceptable reservation consistent with the law of treaties? Why or why not?
|
| Week 10 |
1. What is the basic principle of state responsibility?
2. Is state responsibility a rule of PIL or something different?
3. When does state responsibility become an issue?
|
| Week 11 |
1. The Lotus case concerns a criminal trial. Who was being tried and for what crime?
2. How did the Lotus case come within the jurisdiction of the PCIJ? Did this affect the decision?
3. What are the two different philosophies of international law and state sovereignty were advanced by France and Turkey in the Lotus case?
4. According to the decision of ICJ in the Lotus Case, which or states have jurisdiction to try the accused and on what basis?
|
| Week 12 |
5. The Antelope case (Topic 2) states that pirates are the enemies of the human race and held that in 1825 pirate ships could be searched on the high seas, while slave ships could not. What form of jurisdiction was that opinion referring to?
6. What different bases of jurisdiction under PIL are accepted by ICJ in the Lotus case? Are there any others?
7. If two states have concurrent jurisdiction to try someone, does that mean that either one can legally send police to arrest him? Why not?
|
| Week 13 |
Midterm Debate
Questions:
1. Describe the different “principles” by which states may claim jurisdiction. Which principle does your group think ought to be given deference when they conflict?
2. What is the extent of the ICJ’s jurisdiction? What are the extent of its powers? Does your group think that ICJ is an effective international institution?
|
| Week 14 |
If the statements from the Beijing authorities are considered ”correct,” why did mainland China not include Taiwan’s COVID-19 confirmed cases from 2020 to 2023? Are those who were not included by the Beijing authorities still considered people of a sovereign state in terms of international law, or are they considered people of ”China”? Does the Beijing desire the land of Taiwan but not its inhabitants? On the flip side, Taiwan’s leaders have consistently emphasized that Taiwan does not need formal independence. However, when counting its confirmed COVID-19 cases, Taiwan also does not include cases from mainland China. Taiwan’s current constitution includes the ”mainland area” within its territorial scope. What issues might arise from this situation? |
| Week 15 |
1. What is the most influential global health law in the field of PIL?
2. How has technology affected global health? For the better or the worse?
3. Do you think that those health-related standard-setting legal instruments are very fragmented as there is no overall international recognition of international health law as a distinct branch of PIL?
|
| Week 16 |
1. What is the relationship between international human rights and the idea of natural law?
2. Is international human rights part of positive law?
3. Does the UN Charter establish an international law of human rights?
4. What are the obligations of states regarding human rights?
5. Are human rights primarily a matter of customary PIL or of treaties?
|
| Week 17 |
1. Do states have an obligation to settle their disputes peacefully?
2. How does the ICJ gain jurisdiction to decide disputes between states?
3. How did the ICJ get jurisdiction in the La Grand case?
4. How did the court gain jurisdiction in the Nicaragua case?
5. Why do states sometimes prefer international arbitration to international judicial settlement of their disputes?
6. Does the UN Charter completely prohibit the use of force?
|
| Week 18 |
If one day the Taiwanese government starts issuing national identification cards for AI robots within its borders, should the government of a receiving country issue visas to Taiwanese citizens who possess such AI robot identification cards when they travel, study, or work abroad? If not, does it imply a rejection of the Taiwanese government’s qualification of its citizens? However, if the receiving country issues visas to natural persons from Taiwan, wouldn’t it be a contradictory action? |