Rights in Conflict: Citizenship and Human Rights – 6621

This course explores an emerging, interdisciplinary field of inquiry that focuses on the relationships between Civil Rights Law in the United States and International Human Rights Law in the global context. Although the two areas represent distinct bodies of law, they also share many important features, objectives, and impediments.

By examining the historical emergence of (1) Civil Rights Law in the United States, and (2) International Human Rights Law in the global context, students will gain a better understanding of the critical relationships and intersections between these two important areas of public law. Through an examination of the seminal cases and controversies in these areas, this course will explore the differences between various categories of rights; America's "exceptionalism" why the United States pursues a strong human rights agenda abroad that is rarely applied in the domestic context; the gains (and losses) that the domestic civil rights movement has experienced in recent decades, among other topics.