THEORY OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC LAW
Study Guide
Carlos Jiménez Piernas
Professor of International Public Law and International Relations, University of Alcalá
BLOCK I. THEORICAL BASICS
T.1. The concept and discipline of the International Relations (IR) and International Public Law (IPL)
1. Definitions of the IR and IPL
2. Origin of both disciplines
3. Academic frameworks
4. Methods and knowledge sources
T.2. The theory
1. General considerations: role of the axiological assumptions
2. Philosophical dimension
3. Scientific dimension and theorical debate
4. The big models
5. The IR and IPL in Europe and Spain
T.3. Society and international system
1. Characteristics of the international contemporary society: a systemic approach
2. Society vs Community
3. Specificity of the international system
4. Transformations of the internationa system: globalization
5. Interrelation between international and national systems
BLOCK II. THE CONTEMPORARY INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY
T.4. The actors. Interstate estructure of the International Society
1. International actors: definition and tipology
2. The role of the state in the international relations
3. The State's systems. legal equality vs material inequality
4. Hierarchy in the International Society: the role of the major powers
T.5. The State foreign policy
1. Concept and key elements
2. Elaboration, direction and ejecution of the foreign policy
3. Main forms of control
T.6. Policital systems and foreing policy
1. National interest doctrine
2. Links between foreign and security and defense policy
3. Other politics with external projection
T.7. The actors. Institutional structure of the International Society (I)
1. Definition and origin of the International Organizations (IO)
2. Typology of the IO
3. Interdependence and cooperation: managing common interests
4. Regional integration: the case of the European Union
5. Legal statutes
T.8. The actors. Transnational structure of the International Society (II)
1. Definition and typology of the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO)
2. Main functions of the NGO
3. Transnational companies
4. Religious forces, international of the political parties, trade unions and employers
5. Role of these actors in the regional integration
T.9. The actors. Transnational structure non organised of the International Society (III)
1. Public opinion and International Relations
2. Mass media
3. Propaganda and storytelling
4. The emergency of an international public opinion and information networks
T.10. The conditioning factors
1. Geopolitical factor: space, demography and environment
2. Economic factor: energy
3. Scientific and technical factor: communications
4. Cultural and ideological factor
T.11. The functions
1. Typology of functions
2. Diplomacy and negotiation as a pacific way of relation and solve the differences
3. Cooperation and integration
4. Conflicts and manifestations of violence in the international system
5. Stability and change in the international system: the tension between maintaining and adapting the established model of relations
T.12. The disfunctions: arm conflicts and international terrorism
1. Total war and limited and peripheral conflicts
2. Internal conflicts
3. Weak and failed states
4. International terrorism
BLOCK III. THE CONTEMPORARY LEGAL ORDER
T.13. Structural, systemic and functional approach to Contemporary International Law (CIL)
1. Main formal features of the CIL: the phenomenon of international organisation
2. Regulatory structures of the CIL
3. Genral system and particular subs-systems
4. Functions of the CIL
T.14. Consensual approach to the CIL
1. Consensus definition: consensus gentium and consensus generalis
2. A definition of the CIL according with this notion
3. Sectorialization of the CIL
4. The content of the CIL
T.15. The study of the CIL from a forensic perspective
1. The science of International Public Law (IPL)
2. The acquisitionof the knowledge in the IPL
3. International practice and its means of evidence
4. Access to materials from international practice
T.16. The model for creating and changing international standards (I)
1. Peculiarities of the sources of the CIL
2. Primacy of and derogation from international standards
3. Constitutional principles of the CIL
4. Unilateral acts and acts of practice
T.17. El modelo de creación y cambio de las normas internacionales (II)
1. The relevance of international custom
2. Auge y crisis de la codificación y desarrollo progresivo del Derecho Internacional
3. The normative interaction between custom and treaty
4. The interaction between custom and UN GA resolutions
5. The participation of IGOs in the formation and change of the DI