Theories and Practice of Human Rights

The first aim of the course is to lay the foundations for the correct use of the language of rights (subjective, fundamental, human; civil, political and social) and to provide knowledge of the foundations of rights, their social and legal origins and their effectiveness. It then provides knowledge of the international human rights system in the three dimensions of norms and institutions, theories and practice, with a particular focus on women's rights. Finally, the course aims to stimulate and develop students' critical and argumentative skills through specific in-depth studies on the role of human rights in relation to some current global phenomena.

- Knowledge and understanding of notions of subjective, fundamental and human rights; their contextualization in an historical perspective, starting with their theorizing, going through their positivization, up to the more recent processes of multiplication and internationalization;
- Knowledge and understanding of the main questions in contemporary debate regarding the foundation of rights, their implementation, and the problems of their ineffectivity and of conciliating their universality with cultural diversity;
- Capability to apply knowledge and understanding to the analysis of contemporary processes of transformation and proliferation of rights at the national, international and supranational levels;
- Capability to apply the acquired knowledge to the analysis and discussion of specific legal cases raising the problem of the conflict of fundamental rights and of their balancing.