LAW6097 United Nations: Law and Practice Module Guide | BCU

LAW6097 Module overview 

Introduction 

Welcome to The United Nations: Law and Practice. This intellectually stimulating and exciting module engages with the law and practice of the United Nations for resolving international crises. It provides you with critical knowledge of the UN Charter, international humanitarian law and international human rights law for solving humanitarian disasters. It presents an overview of the Charter of the United Nations and engages with the International Bill of Rights and associated international legislation. 

The module provides a simulated crisis in which you engage in a "Model United Nations' Security Council." The crisis issues include: the necessity for a sanctions regime to stop the human rights violations of genocide, torture, executions, famine, mass casualty medicine and the spread of disease, closure of schools, and border controls. To help solve the crisis, students will participate in the MUN through: (a) providing a UNSC speech; (b) engaging in an alliance-building activity with fellow member states, and (c) voting on and drafting a UNSC Resolution. 

In this Module Guide, you will find information that will help you to get the most out of your study of The United Nations: Law and Practice module this year. Please take the time to read through it, and feel free to contact the team if there is anything that you are unsure about. 

We will include a Graduate+ component to further contribute to your employability. 

This guide contains all of the material you will need to engage with the lecture and workshop programme for The United Nations: Law and Practice. Our experience shows that attendance and participation during these sessions are essential to enable you to do well in this module. Please make the most of workshops by attending them and carrying out the required pre-reading and preparation beforehand. 

The texts to aid you in your studies can be found in the reading and resources section. You should make full use of the United Nations: Law and Practice Moodle site and the international human rights library stocks in Curzon Library, and the various sections within the United Nations' websites (links are provided). 

We wish you well for this year. The United Nations: Law and Practice is a very engaging and interesting subject and you will do well if you prepare accordingly, attend and engage in the opportunities we give you leading up to the Model United Nations Security Council.

Assessment Overview 

The assessment method and coursework weightings are as follows: 

Assessment: 100% individual coursework of a total of 4250 words (not including footnotes). The coursework will consist of three sections. 

Part A: Member State Speech (1000 words) 

Part B: UNSC Resolution -voting rationale (3000 words) 

Part C: Reflection - which will account for Graduate + (250 words) 

For the full assessment brief, including submission deadlines, please refer to the version on Moodle. 

To pass this module, you must achieve a final overall mark of at least 40% on an undergraduate module and 50% on a postgraduate module. If your mark is less than this, your performance across modules at the same level will be considered by the Examination Board to see if you can be awarded a compensated or condoned pass. Where this is not possible, you will be required to retake the assessment. 

For full details about the university regulations applied to this module, please refer to the iCity or contact the school office for any specific questions.

Support 

Tutor support 

Support is available at any time throughout this module; simply contact your tutor by email if you need help. Feedforward sessions will be scheduled to help you plan your work, and an assessment brief will be made available on the module's Moodle site to provide further guidance. 

Specific feedback on individual assessments will be available via scheduled, face-to-face meetings or arranged class tutorials. To make the most of these sessions, it is expected that you will have already begun work on your assessment and have a list of questions for your tutor prepared in advance. 

Detailed feedback will not be possible via email, and lecturers can only comment on one draft. Comments on multiple drafts are not possible, as there is a danger that your work becomes your lecturer's work. However, if you have any specific queries or need additional support, you can still book an individual tutorial. 

Additional support 

The Centre for Academic Success is the University's central learning development service, which offers additional help to students in a variety of ways. They run workshops as well as one-to-one or small group tutorials, offering a valuable extra resource in a range of study skills. You can use them to help with academic writing, report writing, referencing, statistics and much more. They are based in the Curzon Building in C142 or you can contact the team on.