General provisions

Determined on March 28, 2019 by Faculty of Law's Teaching Committee, Uppsala University, by virtue of Chapter 6 Section 14 and 15 (1993:100) of the Higher Education Ordinance. The course plan enters into force on August 15, 2019.

General information

This course is an elective course at the advanced level in studies for the degree of Master of Laws, in accordance with the degree requirements adopted on the 16th of April 2007 by the Board of the Faculty of Law of Uppsala University. Successful completion of the course earns 15 university credit points (15 ECTS credits). The course is held in English.

Entry requirements

In general, Swedish students must have attained five passes out of the six courses given at level 1 of the LL.M programme. All the obligatory phases of the course in which the student has not attained a pass must have been fulfilled.

Students from abroad must at least have passed two years of studies in law.

If special reasons exist, the board of exemption may grant exemption from the acceptance requirements.

Learning outcomes

The objective of the course is to give students a deeper knowledge of the legal position of the child from both an international law perspective as well as a national law perspective. The accrued knowledge will be multi-dimensional, as follows:

• Students should emerge from the course with a deeper understanding of the rights of children that are recognized under international law, particularly under the Convention of the Rights of the Child and the European Convention on Human Rights. Students will also be provided tools for a broad understanding of children's rights in general, including those recognized in other international law instruments.
• The course aims to strengthen students' abilities to analyse and discuss concepts that are essential for advanced discourse on children's rights, both generally and in broader discourse on human rights.
• Students should gain an advanced understanding of the diversity of national legal approaches to protecting the rights of children in a wide array of contexts, clarifying how the law works from a practical perspective to protect children, but also assessing whether national law is effective in providing the needed protections.

Criteria for grades

Successful completion of the course is graded according to three assessment levels: "Pass" (B), "Pass with merit" (Ba) and "Pass with distinction" (AB). Students who do not achieve a passing grade will receive a grade of "unsatisfactory" (U).

To earn the grade of "Pass" (B), a student must demonstrate the ability to answer questions of national and international law on the rights of children, as reflected in the course content. Students should be able to structure and present oral and written analysis of the law accurately and descriptively, exhibiting work that is grounded in sound legal reasoning. All work required for the course must be submitted on time in order to receive a passing grade.

To earn the higher grade of "Pass with merit" (Ba), a student must, in addition to fulfiling the requirements for grade B, demonstrate an advanced depth of analysis beyond the correct application of the law in specific settings. The student should demonstrate through written work the ability to reason about the law in its context precisely, analytically, and critically, - for example, reflecting on the law's normative aims and how the law in practice may conflict with those norms.

For the highest grade, "Pass with distinction" (AB), the student must, in addition to fulfiling the requirements for grade Ba, demonstrate the ability to structure and analyse complex subject matter from a distinct perspective that is grounded in law. The analysis should be based on thorough investigation of both law and facts, which should be objectively presented from a reflective and critical perspective, with a high degree of independence and originality of thought.

Content

The rights of children are currently at the forefront of global discourse. In light of the widespread interest in the subject, Children, Human Rights, and the Law will provide participants the opportunity to comprehensively study the legal position of children as autonomous individuals with enforceable rights, but also as vulnerable persons in need of protection, even within their families. As a study of both national and international law, the course is designed to promote understanding of the recognition of children as rights-holders in both of these contexts. It will examine how children's rights are conceptualized and interpreted under international law and how violations of those rights may be remedied. It will also consider what measures may be needed for national governments to fulfil their obligations under international law, particularly to change their legal frameworks to protect children. Because of the international focus of the subject matter, the course will also examine the rights of children who cross borders. It will also compare children's rights controversies from different national legal orders. Students will be invited to share their own perspectives on how their legal orders protect (or fail to protect) children's rights.

The course will study these issues through the lens of different rights, including:

• the right to have parents and a family;
• the right to know one's genetic origins;
• the right to protection from violence;
• rights in health care, including freedom from compulsory care and access to birth control and abortion;
• rights related to privacy, sexuality, and protection in matters of intimacy and identity, including for minority children;
• the rights of migrant children;
• rights in cultural conflicts, such as child marriages and freedom of religion in schools;
• rights in cross-border settings, especially when family members are governed by different national and international laws and
• rights to remedies in national courts and under international law.

Instruction

All teaching and course literature will be in English. Most of the teaching and learning will occur through seminars. Attendance at all lectures and seminars, however, is compulsory. The course directors may, in a given case, exempt a student from the attendance requirement if there are special grounds for doing so and may require appropriate replacement tasks to be performed. Before the seminars, students are expected to prepare by working first on their own and then by coming together in pre-assigned study groups to share their analysis on the assignments. All students should participate in seminar discussions during the course and take turns in leading presentations of the study group's input. Seminar teachers will, to varying degrees, steer and participate in the discussions. A detailed presentation of the course is given in the attached study plan.

Assessment

Student performance for the course will be assessed on the basis of two forms of written work submitted during the course. The first of these will be a short paper on a subject chosen by the student. The second will be a take-home exam on a pre-determined subject. To earn a passing grade, participants must have completed all of the compulsory elements of the course and a passing grade on these two written works.

The Faculty of Law prohibits the use of any deceptive means to influence the outcome of an exam or student work evaluated for a grade. A student, therefore, may only use the materials or learning aids that are expressly permitted during a written examination or in other written work; all other materials or aids are forbidden. All written work must be the exclusive work of the individual student submitting it for a grade. Cooperation with other students in formulating the content of any submitted work is prohibited, regardless of whether the student provides or receives the prohibited assistance. Work submitted without proper citation or attribution constitutes plagiarism and is strictly proscribed. Additional instructions provided in the course for the specific assignment must also be followed. Final scores on an exam or assignment may be reduced or nullified for a student who engages in any of the misconduct or plagiarism proscribed above, which must also be reported to the University Disciplinary Board. The Board may issue formal warnings or disbar the student from studying at the university for a period of up to six months.

Other directives

Delegations

It is delegated to the course director to issue the study plan and the literature list. These shall be annually submitted to the Teaching Committee as part of the course report.