Option : Human Rights [15.0]

Human rights have been expanding dramatically since 1990, and their impacts on other branches of law (including family law, administrative law, environmental law, civil procedure, trade law) are significant. International and European case-law has also developed spectacularly during this pe-riod ; and human rights are increasingly invoked before domestic courts. It has therefore been deemed appropriate to offer an option focusing on human rights in the programme of the masters in law, allowing the students to acquire the conceptual tools required to master this subject matter, and to follow its evolutions.

The human rights option includes three courses, each of 30 hours :

• DROP 2090 Leading Cases of the European Court of Human Rights (J. Callewaert) : study of the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights
• DROP 2091 International Protection of Human Rights (O. De Schutter) : study of the in-ternational law of human rights, in its international, regional, and national dimensions
• DROP 2092 Droit et migrations (J.-Y. Carlier) : study of the different forms of interna-tional migration (asylum, family reunification, economic immigration) and of their in-teractions with the relevant human rights principles

The three courses included in the human rights option are interdependent and complementary. The lecturers have made a special effort to avoid any significant overlap between the courses. In addi-tion, one joint one-day seminar shall be held every year, introduced by an external invitee, on a theme of common interest. However, each of the courses can be followed independently, and nei-ther is a prerequisite for the others.

The option is bilingual : two of the three courses are taught in English, the language in which the course materials are therefore being made available. The students choosing this option are ex-pected to have at least a passive knowledge of English, and they must be prepared to intervene in this language during the classes, which are interactive. Beyond this minimal requirement, however, a poor pratice of English should not be seen as an obstacle to the participation in this option : the lecturers concerned are committed to ensuring that the students who are less fluent in English shall not be penalized or disadvantaged in any way.

The lecturers teaching in this option are each specialists of the subjects that they teach, and they combine their research with practice, in various capacities : Johan Callewaert is a member of the Legal Registry of the European Court of Human Rights, special advisor to its president ; Olivier De Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, has often acted as an expert to the Council of Europe or to the European Union, and has a wide experience of human rights non-governmental organisations ; Jean-Yves Carlier is a practicing lawyer, and an expert for the EU in the areas of asylum and immigration.