Introduction
Please note that this is a preliminary course description. The final version will be published in June 2026.
This course is about the systems of legal rules that apply on the international level, i.e. between states and between states and private actors.
International law, also commonly known as public international law, comprises unwritten rules (customary international law) but mostly written rules in the forms of treaties made and entered into by sovereign states, either on a bilateral basis or within international organizations such as, but not limited to, the United Nations, OECD, and the WTO. The course does not as such cover EU/EEA law (dealt with in designated courses).
International law regulates a plethora of areas of immense importance for global and national affairs, such as the sovereignty of states and its spheres of influence (including jurisdiction over territory and other areas), conflict resolution between states and between states and private actors, and basic norms of state responsibility when international law rules are not adhered to.
International treaties increasingly entail significant limits as well as opportunities for private actors, including business actors, in areas such as investment protection, taxation, trade and fundamental rights. International law entails the development of particular legal methodological skills, including how treaties and other international legal and quasi-legal instruments are interpreted, how international law rules come into being and how they are developed. International dispute resolution are both different and similar to domestic dispute resolution.