2024/25 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

PIED3640 Ethics and Politics of Human Rights

20 creditsClass Size: 55

Module manager: Dr Kerri Woods
Email: K.Woods@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable

Year running 2024/25

This module is approved as a discovery module

Module summary

What are human rights? Why do humans have human rights? What human rights should humans have? Human rights are embedded in national and international legal and political practice and are widely accepted as minimum moral standards. Yet, human rights abuses continue to be endemic. In light of this paradox, human rights theorists challenge us to rethink our assumptions about the nature, justification, validity and scope of human rights claims in the contemporary world.

Objectives

This module aims
(i) to introduce students to important conceptual and normative issues in contemporary human rights theory.
(ii) to equip students to analyse and evaluate a range of arguments and positions in relation to these issues.
(iii) to develop students’ ability to reflect on, summarise and present the key issues and their analyses of them orally and/or in writing.

The principal learning activities are:
(i) Weekly lecture – this will outline the principal issues and contextualise the core readings in wider scholarly debates and legal and political practice.
(ii) Core readings – students will independently read set core texts to prepare for the seminars.
(iii) Via Minerva, students are provided with key questions to guide their reading in preparation for seminars.
(iv) Weekly seminars – a variety of exercises including group work practicing textual analysis, structured exercises, and class discussions. These provide students with informal formative feedback on their learning in a group setting.
(v) Weekly office hours – students will have the opportunity to clarify points and get 1:1 informal formative feedback on their learning.
(vi) Assessment workshops in preparation for the midterm assessment and the final assessment – to support students in developing their abilities to reflect, summarise and present their analyses orally and/or in writing.

Learning outcomes
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following learning outcomes relevant to the subject:
1. A knowledge of key normative and conceptual issues in the ethics and politics of human rights.
2. An understanding of how normative and conceptual issues in human rights theory link to one another and to wider issues in contemporary human rights legal and political practice.
3. An understanding of the problems that key texts in human rights theory are seeking to identify and address, and their relevance for contemporary human rights challenges.
4. A degree of confidence and competence in analysing and evaluating conceptual and normative arguments in political theory.

On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following skills learning outcomes:
1. The ability to synthesise, analyse, evaluate relevant information and to produce a reasoned argument.
2. The ability to use communication and information technologies to retrieve and present information.
3. The ability to exercise critical judgement, and manage and self-critically reflect on, students’ own learning and make use of constructive feedback.
4. The ability to communicate complex arguments effectively and fluently in spoken and written English.

Syllabus

The module covers a range of topics and approaches in human rights theory, from the philosophical foundations of human rights – looking at concepts like dignity, personhood, and the idea of a human rights culture – to questions of relativism and universalism, and to the ethics and politics of specific categories of human rights such as social and economic rights, cultural and religious rights, environmental rights, gender-based rights.

The specific topics studied may vary from year to year, reflecting the development of ongoing debates in contemporary human rights theory.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Lecture	9	1.00	9.00
Practical	2	1.00	2.00
Seminar	11	1.00	11.00
Private study hours			178.00
Total Contact hours			22.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Private study

Students are asked to read key chapters/articles listed in the module reading list in preparation for seminar discussions, Critical Responses, and their essay.

Students will be provided with lecture notes in the form of power point slides in advance of lectures, and will also be provided with seminar preparation questions to guide their reading.

Students will have the opportunity to discuss a bullet-point plan with their seminar tutor in preparation for written assessments.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Students receive formative feedback on group work in seminars and are invited to attend (optional) 1:1 appointments to discuss their plans for the assessment at both summative assessment points. Students also receive feedback on the midterm assessment that specifically highlights points to take forward to the final assessment, and have the opportunity to discuss the feedback further in office hours. Throughout the semester, students are also invited to attend office hours for 1:1 support if wished.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Assignment	1 X 3000 End of Term Essay OR 15 Minutes Recorded Presentation	70.00
Literature Review	1 x 1000 Literature Review	30.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 29/04/2024 16:19:21

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