History of Human Rights

The course aims to provide the students with the basic critical tools enabling them to know the historical development and the emergence of Human Rights, both contextualizing the roots of fundamental freedoms within their evolutionary process, and finding continuities and discontinuities between the past and the present.
The learning objectives of the course, therefore, are to illustrate the dynamics leading to the existing 'set' of Human Rights and the means of universal protection of a whole package of rights belonging to all human being simply by virtue of their being human, as well as their declination in the fields of politics, economy, and culture, and also their legacy to contemporary law and institutions. To this end, focus will be on the struggle for the recognition of fundamental rights, especially through the technical examination of legal argumentation and reasoning, as well as the analysis of case studies, political documents, decisions of courts, national and international laws, declarations and treaties related to the clearance (and the denial) of human rights.

At the end of the course, students will have to demonstrate
- knowledge and understanding: to know and to understand the basic notions underlying the development of Human Rights, and to be able to reflect upon the distinctive features of Western legal culture;
- applying knowledge and understanding: the ability to understand the various techniques of legal reasoning, as well as the ability to collect, analyze and select data based on context;
- making judgements: critical awareness, management skills, flexibility, and a capacity for research into the many elements that make up the historical side of law as it relates to the foundations of Western legal knowledge, through optional written exercises;
- communication skills: to write and to speak about the concepts learned during the course, utilizing coherent argumentation, methodical precision and correct language;
- learning skills: to understand the relationship between institutions, society and individuals, and also to demonstrate a strong capacity for analysis and reflection in terms of legal issues, both past and present.