Hard Cases Make Bad (Human Rights) Law

In this course students will analyze eight different Human Rights Cases from a variety of jurisdictions: The European Court of Human Rights, The European Court of Justice, the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights, the UK Supreme Court (formerly the House of Lords), the American Supreme Court, the Canadian Supreme Court, the Israeli Supreme Court and a handful of others.

In each instance a case will be chosen where (in the eyes of the instructor) the normativity is not clear cut and the law too may or might be ambiguous or even ambivalent. Different analytical methodologies will be used ranging from Legal Realism, through Sociological Jurisprudence, to classical positivism. Different perspectives and legal skill will be cultivated.

Students will be called not only to analyze the cases but prepare in some instance an hypothetical appeal and argue such in class.