Module 29-WS-GSG Global Structures and Governance

Non-official translation of the module descriptions. Only the German version is legally binding.

Students will be introduced to essential concepts of international law and global governance. Students will gain theoretical and empirical knowledge on hard and soft law, key actors at the global stage (including international governmental and non-governmental organisations, states, business and philanthropic actors), and modes of interaction. The courses deal with historical as well as current developments in international relations and the emergence of international law. Courses will also deal with different levels of law and policy making, and the complexities of multi-level relations and law, and the roles of actors across these levels. In particular, students will learn how to understand and interpret legal norms in their context, and how to make, and how to counter, legal arguments. They learn how to identify relevant topics and research questions and how to deal with them on their own. They will be enabled to theoretically and critically reflect on their own observations and findings about global problems, norms, procedures, actors’ behaviour and the like. Students will be equipped with appropriate methodologies and research designs to undertake research on forms and problems of transnational political governance, regulation, different policy fields and problems.

The module focusses on the emergence and development of international law, structures, and international and regional organisations. The lectures and seminars engage with issues such as the role of the United Nations in securing peace through the prohibition through the use of force, international courts, human rights, the protection of common goods, and economic and social progress. Lectures and seminars also concentrate on transnational and global dimensions of political processes, actors, and changing institutional arrangements, and characteristics of world society. Theories and approaches to international law and ‘the world’ will include the constitutionalisation thesis, multi-level governance, world society theory, world-regional studies, transnational studies, regional integration, global governance, and global industrial relations.

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