A‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍NSWER ONLY 1 of the 6 QUESTIONS 1. ‘If the Indian natives w

A‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍NSWER ONLY 1 of the 6 QUESTIONS 1. ‘If the Indian natives wish to prevent the Spaniards from enjoying any of their above-named rights under the law of nations … the Spaniards ought in the first place to use reason and persuasion … to show…that they … wish to sojourn as peaceful guests and to travel without doing the natives any harm … But when the Indians deny the Spaniards their rights under the law of nations they do them a wrong. Therefore, if it be necessary, in order to preserve their right, that they should go to war, they may lawfully do so.’ (Vitoria, 1532). Explain and discuss the basis of Vitoria’s argument concerning the rights of the ‘Spaniards’ in relation to the ‘Indians’ and consider whether this argument still has relevance for international law today. Your answer should engage both with scholarship and with practice (i.e. real-world illustrations drawn from the sphere of international relations). 2. ‘[The] United States apparently takes the view that the existence of principles in the United Nations Charter preclude the possibility that similar rules might exist independently in customary international law … The Court has not accepted this extreme contention, having found that on a number of points the areas governed by the two sources of law do not exactly overlap, and the substantive rules in which they are framed are not identical in content.’ (ICJ Rep. 1986, paras. 174; 181.) Explain and discuss the reasoning behind this aspect of the ICJ’s judgement in the Nicaragua case and consider its significance for our understanding of international law’s doctrine of sources. Your answer should engage both with scholarship and with practice (. real-world illustrations drawn from the sphere of international relations). 3. ‘The newcomers’ descendants increased their military and economic capacity. That of the indigenous peoples remained (in the best of cases) the same or (most frequently) decreased rapidly, which resulted in both cases in a growing vulnerability of these peoples to the machinations of the non-indigenous, with whom they had possibly made treaties/agreements, but who now wished … impose a “new order” on their ancestral homes. Thus began the … “domestication” of the “indigenous question”, that is to say, the process by which the entire problematique was removed from the sphere of international law and placed squarely under the exclusive competence of the internal jurisdiction of the non-indigenous States.’ (Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 1999, paras. 191-92.) Explain and discuss the process the Special Rapporteur (Miguel Alfonso Martínez) refers to as the ‘domestication’ of the indigenous question’ and consider its significance for our understanding of the law of the law of treaties and/or the concept of international personality. Your answer should engage both with scholarship and with practice (. real-world illustrations drawn from the sphere of international relations). 4. ‘… [T]he character of sovereignty in the non-European world is profoundly different from its character in the European world… For the non-European world, sovereignty was the complete negation of power, authority and authenticity. This was not only because European sovereignty was used as a mechanism of suppression and management, but [also] because the acquisition of sovereignty was the acquisition of European civilization. In effect, then, for the non-European society, personhood was achieved precisely at that point of time when it ceased to have an independent existence; when it was absorbed into European Empires or when it profoundly altered its own cultural practices and political organizations.’ (Anghie, 2004, p. 104.) Explain Anghie’s account of the relationship between European and non-European sovereignty and discuss its significance for our understanding of the history of international law and its impact on the Global South. Your answer should engage both with scholarship and with practice (. real-world illustrations drawn from the sphere of international relations). 5. ‘Article 1. Every internationally wrongful act of a State entails the international responsibility of that State. Article 2. There is an internationally wrongful act of a State when conduct consisting of an action or omission: (a) is attributable to the State under international law; and (b) constitutes a breach of an international obligation of the State.’ (International Law Commission, 2001).’ Explain and discuss this core principle of international law, paying particular attention to the question of who or what might fall ‘below the radar’ when it comes to the attribution of responsibility for internationally wrongful acts. Your answer should engage ‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍both with scholarship and with practice (. real-world illustrations drawn from the sphere of international relations). 6. ‘The state constituted by international law is a bounded, self-contained, closed, separate entity that is entitled to ward of any unwanted contact or interference … Like a heterosexual male body, the state has no “natural” points of entry… [making] forced entry the clearest possible breach of international law. Entities that cannot exert control over a coherent, unified territory, or that straddle borders, such as many indigenous [or] minority peoples, do not qualify as full subjects of international law. This type of group is seen as having permeable, negotiable, penetrable boundaries in the same way that women’s bodies have been constructed in criminal law … [Similarly, in the past, colonial conquest] was represented in an erotic way, with the male coloniser taming, through intercourse, an unbounded, uncontrollable female people.’ (Charlesworth & Chinkin, 2000, pp. 129-30.) Explain and discuss Charlesworth and Chinkin’s critique of ‘the state as constituted by international law’. Your answer should engage both with scholarship and with practice (. real-world illustrations drawn from the sphere of international relations). TIPS FOR RESEARCHING AND WRITING YOUR ESSAY: When selecting your essay question and writing your essay, please bear in mind the following: ? Choose an essay on a topic you’re interested in. None of these questions is easier than any of the others; they are all designed as vehicles for you to demonstrate how thorough and nuanced your grasp of the topic is. The more interesting you find the topic, the better (more thorough and nuanced) your answer will be. ? Read your selected essay question carefully, divide it into discrete tasks, and make sure you respond to everything it is asking you to do. ? Think about what this assessment is testing you on – . think about the relationship between your essay and the module as a whole. This is a module on the principles and sources of international law. As this suggests, it’s very important that you demonstrate your familiarity with the core principles and sources relevant to the topic you have chosen. You should definitely devote some space to explaining and discussing them at some point in your essay. Equally, each question reminds you to engage both with scholarship and with practice. That’s because state practice is so important when it comes to understanding how international norms emerge and change. ? Each question engage scholarship as well as practice. In addition to the materials you discover in the course of your own research, you must engage with the Required and Recommended Readings for the topic you have chosen. You should also check the Module Guide and the ‘Further Reading’ section on Moodle for further reading tips. You are strongly advised to start with these before beginning your own independent research. ? When you do begin your own research, it is NOT a good idea to start with Google Scholar or with a regular Google search. A much better idea would be to start with scholarly databases (eg try doing an ‘advanced search’ on HeinOnline’s ‘Law Journal Library’), reputable international law blogs and news sources, the resource pages of numerous international organisations and NGOs, etc. See the ‘Reading: What and How to Read for this Course’ section of your module guide for further advice on how to access these. ? Each question asks you both to ‘explain’ and to ‘discuss/examine’. Think carefully about the distinction between these two activities and remember that ‘discuss/examine’ implies critical thinking by definition. ? Thinking critically about a topic does not mean that you need to come down on the ‘critical’ side of the argument. What it does mean, however, is that you need to ‘step back’ from the principles and sources you’ve been engaging with; think about what you (or the author you are reading) might unwittingly be taking for granted, using the critical scholarship we have covered in this module to help you; and work out what the alternative sides of the debate in this area might be (trust me, there is always a debate!) A helpful question to keep in mind while reading (and writing): ‘Is this author assuming that international law is ‘part of the solution’, here, or are they considering whether international law might actually be ‘part of the problem’? ? Proper referencing is very important. By the same token, poor referencing will cost you marks unnecessarily. You must footnote every claim you make, formatted according to a recognised citation style (. OSCOLA) and include all the necessary information (pinpoint page numbers, etc). If you hand in‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍ an essay with footnotes that are incorrectly formatted or missing information, your mark is likely to fall at least one step down on the categorical marking scale.