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LouvainX: Louv5x International Law

Syllabus

Welcome to the Course!

Welcome to International Law! This course, beginning on January 10 will help you to better understand the world in which we live. You will learn how international law is made, applied and enforced, and about its basic rules.

The course intends to convey the basic concepts, structures and rules that make international law a specific legal order.  The course does not pretend to be exhaustive as it cannot give account of all issues and cases.

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

  • Explain how and by whom international law is made, by whom it must be respected and how it is applied.
  • Discuss what happens when binding rules are breached and how it is possible to seek justice in this world.

Prerequisites

This is an intermediate level course and familiarity with legal concepts and legal language is recommended.

Workload

Students are expected to spend roughly four to six hours a week watching the videos, reading the materials, responding to the problems and exercises and participating actively in the forums. As mentioned above, for those with little familiarity with legal concepts and language, additional time commitment may be required.

Grading and Certificate

The International Law louv5x course includes both participants who are only auditing the course (AUDIT track) and participants who will request a Verified Certificate (VC track). If you wish to have your course work validated for the International Law MicroMasters, you must upgrade to a Verified Certificate BEFORE taking the final exam.

If you need a Verified Certificate but cannot afford the full price, please note that edX may be able to provide financial assistance under certain conditions. If you are eligible for financial assistance, the fee for the verified certificate will be discounted by 90%. For more on financial assistance, please consult this FAQ.

Grading:

  • 'Participation Assessment': you will be graded on the basis of your participation throughout the course (called PA in the Progress Tab), as measured by the problems you've completed and the discussions you've contributed to (short quizzes or checkboxes) for 5% of the final grade.
  • 'Weekly Exam': each week closes with a Weekly Exam (called WE in the Progress Tab), to the exception of Week 1. Each section has the same weight in the final evaluation, which is 7% of the final grade. The results obtained on the seven questionnaires in total shall account for 49% of the final grade.
  • 'Final Exam': the final exam is worth 46% of your final grade. Learners who want to achieve the Verified Certificate have a different final exam than Audit learners - see details in the page Assessment & Grading. Please upgrade to a Verified Certificate BEFORE taking the final exam, if you want to get a Verified Certificate for this course.

You pass the course when you have a final grade of 60%.

Be careful: multiple choice questionnaires of the weekly exams and of the final exam are limited in time. You have a set amount of time to complete each MCQ. If you go over the time limit you can no longer submit answers to questions. You won’t receive points for unsubmitted questions.

You can decide how quickly to progress through the material, but please note that students must complete all graded assignments by 23:30 pm (UTC time) on August 31, 2017 and earn a total grade of at least 60% in order to pass the course.

Course Schedule

This course is proposed on a self-paced mode. That means that you can progress at your own pace throughout the modules to learn. When you reach the passing threshold (60% of the final grade), you've passed the course.

However, the deadline for accomplishing all activities, weekly exams and the final exam is on 23:30 pm (UTC) August 31, 2017. There will be no extension or grace period. After that date, the course will be archived. 

Be careful: All times in this course are given in Coordinated Universal Time  (UTC). You will need to convert this into your time zone.                

To go further

There are many excellent textbooks on International Law and this MOOC does not pretend to replace a good read. You are therefore warmly encouraged to deepen your knowledge and understanding of international law by resorting to an accessible textbook on the subject. However, you do not need to purchase any book for the purpose of taking this MOOC. The only readings you will need to do are those to be found on the course pages. 

Among many others, here are two suggested textbooks if you want to go further:

Furthermore, we invite you to have a look at the UN Audivisual Library. This is a unique virtual resource that contains a permanent collection of lectures of on almost every subject of international law given by leading international law scholars and practitioners.