Governance, Politics, and Society

While the focus of the course is on countries that are not considered rich or developed (most countries in the regions of Latin America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East), we will refer to and use material throughout the course that also covers the rich countries and emerging market ones inasmuch as: 1) they were once underdeveloped or have developed recently, and this experience sheds light on those that have not managed to develop or ‘catch up’; and 2) their own growth and development has been in many cases a cause why others have remained undeveloped (i.e. colonialism, imperialism, dependency).

The class will examine seminal cases which lead to the development of voluntary global standards and will explore the new regulatory framework being created to protect stakeholders and hold corporations accountable for negative impacts created by them through their goods and services. We will also look at contemporary human rights challenges against corporations and corporate executives based upon their alleged complicity in human rights violations such as companies doing business in fragile, corrupt or war-torn states. We will focus on the crucial role of the financial sector (investors), advocacy groups, and consumers in rewarding (and penalizing) businesses that do not take human rights and sustainability into account. The class will cover a few sectors that pose specific human rights challenges in the business environment, namely: the apparel industry, agriculture, extractives, and Information and Communications Technology (ICT).

In this course, we explore the nature of populism; investigate whether populism poses an existential threat to liberal democracy; explore the causes of the populist rise; investigate the ways in which populism is a response to demographic change; and discuss what strategies might allow non-populist political actors to push back.

This class will grapple with the concepts, histories and policies that are relevant to the international legal protection of human and peoples' rights. Can the "international" (which claims universality) accommodate the "local" (which is particular)? Indeed, why (and to what extent) is the "international" an important element in the protection of human and peoples' rights? How (and to what extent) is "law" relevant to the international protection of human rights - why do we not just resort to politics? A broad-based set of literature will be examined including African, Asian, Islamic, European, and Inter-American perspectives. It will examine the various global-level and regional-level international normative texts (e.g. treaties), processes, and institutions that have been established to advance the cause of the international protection of human and peoples' rights and analyze the lessons for both international human rights theory and practice