Justice and international affairs

The course offers an overview of the major normative problems and questions relevant in the field of international affairs, by addressing, from a normative perspective, issues connected to war, human rights protection, democracy promotion, transitional justice, international institutions and their role. Similar topics will be tackled with a view to single out their controversial character and to emphasize the significance of normative considerations both in the case of conflicts among or within states and in the case of problems and goals requiring coordinated responses at the international level.

Knowledge and understanding:

Students are expected to acquire a clear understanding about the key notions and concepts employed in the philosophical debate concerning international justice. Students are also expected to acquire in-depth knowledge concerning major normative problems and questions relevant in the field of international affairs.

Applying knowledge and understanding:
At the end of the course, students are expected to be able to apply their acquired knowledge and competences in the field of international justice to issues animating public debates. To this end, the course offers several occasions for in-depth class discussion, which will provide a suitable space for debating the relevance and import of the philosophical notions and approaches under examination with respect to more concrete issues and questions. Moreover, certain paradigmatic cases will be discussed in order to increase students' understanding about how to use abstract and general philosophical arguments to tackle more specific problems.

Making judgements:
At the end of the course, the students will have acquired the capacity for autonomous judgment thanks to the proposed readings and active discussions in class. Indeed, the course material includes essays endorsing different and opposing perspectives. Accordingly, by comparing and confronting them, students will be prompted to evaluate different standpoints and to adjudicate between them. Moreover, through the analysis of philosophical arguments - of their premises and their internal structure - students will acquire relevant competences to critically examine the arguments at stake, thus further enhancing their capacity to autonomously judge their validity.

Communication:
Students are expected to acquire familiarity with the argumentative strategies endorse in philosophical debates, which offer insights on how to elaborate consistent arguments or proposals and on how to effectively defend them and which are therefore functional to improve students' communication skills.