LAWS12070 - Public International Law

General Information

Unit Synopsis

Globalisation, economic liberalisation and technological advances have in the last three decades facilitated greater interaction and cooperation among States in ways never seen before. There is a greater awareness among States of their interdependence and the need for a concerted response to global issues such as global warming, environmental degradation, humanitarian crises, international refugees, human rights violations, rogue States, terrorism, military adventurism, and pandemics. In this era and context, Public International Law, which provides a regime of legal rules that governs the conduct and relations of sovereign States, and Human Rights Law have gained increasing importance.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 2
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 4
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

Prerequisite: 24 credit points of law units including LAWS11057.

Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School No Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 3 - 2024

Term 3 - 2024 Profile
Online

Attendance Requirements

All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).

Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Group Discussion 40%
2. Presentation and Written Assessment 60%

This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).

Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades

Past Exams

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Previous Feedback

Term 3 - 2022 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 84.62% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 27.66% response rate.

Feedback, Recommendations and Responses

Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.

Source: Private email and course evaluation data.
Feedback
Assessments
Recommendation
The group work for assessment task 1 complies with the unit profile which requires group discussions for the first assessment task. It may be difficult to achieve effective group discussions with the quizzes which were used for the assessment in earlier offerings. If quizzes are to be used in subsequent offerings, they should be designed to promote students engagement or there may be need to amend the unit profile. There were complaints about group members failing to contribute to group work. The groups were large with 7 to 10 students per group. If the group work is to be used, there should be smaller groups of 2 to 4 members to ensure all group members are fully involved in the work. Submission should also be in tracked in word format so contributions from members can be easily seen. Assessments should test students' knowledge of International Law in more novel scenarios so students can more rigorously apply their knowledge to international law principles to a wider range of hypothetical problems.
Action Taken
The unit will be updated so that group work will now seek to replicate the work of an organ/body of the United Nations, World Trade Organization and/or International Labor Organization and students can work as a group in putting together a presentation in that context.
Source: Course evaluation data
Feedback
Students Engagement
Recommendation
Students should be encouraged to participate more actively in the group work. There should be more clarity on the recommended textbook for the unit and the course guides can be updated in line with the textbook to be used before the next offering of the course.
Action Taken
The recommended textbook has now been updated.
Source: Course evaluation
Feedback
Weekly tutorials/workshops
Recommendation
Students were generally pleased with the depth and breadth of issues covered. Students expressed great satisfaction with the practical approach to course content. This should be maintained.
Action Taken
The unit will continue to achieve a balance of depth and breadth of issues that are covered and with a continuing focus on a practical approach.
Unit learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. Discuss and explain key topics of Public International and Human Rights Law, such as: the sources and subjects of international law; statehood and State sovereignty; international trade law; State responsibility; human rights and self-determination; and the law of treaties
  2. Discuss, explain and apply key principles of Public International and Human Rights Law to real and theoretical contexts
  3. Critically analyse, research and provide solutions to practical and theoretical questions concerning Public International and Human Rights Law.

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3
1 - Group Discussion • • •
2 - Presentation and Written Assessment • • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3
1 - Communication • • •
2 - Problem Solving • • •
3 - Critical Thinking • • •
4 - Information Literacy •
8 - Ethical practice • • •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10