030585 KU International Law in Asia (2024W)

This course will cover international law in an Asian context, using Asian authors and decisions. It enables students to acquire a deeper understanding of international law.

The course introduces Asian perspectives and instruments of international law. The first three sessions provide a historical and theoretical foundation for the rest of the semester. The course begins with some legal history, and explores how international law was introduced to Asia. We discuss issues such as unequal treaties, “Asian values” and “historic rights” in the South China Sea. The course then turns to the embrace of and resistance to international law by Asian states, as well as the growing influence of Asian countries on the making and development of international law in the 21st century.
The next sessions look more closely at specific cases and state practice such as the Korean "comfort women" cases and air defense identification zones in Asia. We will then broach the universality of human rights, and look at Asian approaches to human rights. As the recent publication of the UN Report on the human rights situation of the Uyghurs in China has put the treatment of minorities by Asian states back into focus, we address the protection of minorities and indigenous peoples in Asia as well. We will discuss whether the international human rights regime can protect minorities, and why it might be difficult to apply the concept of “indigenous peoples” in Asia. In sessions 9 and 10, we will discuss a complex maritime and territorial dispute in Asia: The South China Sea Dispute. We will compare the legal arguments of both States, and address the scepticism of Asian states towards international dispute settlement. The final two sessions are devoted to Asia’s role in the shaping of contemporary international economic law.