Instructor(s): Rebecca Cook

Note: This course satisfies either the Perspective or the International/Comparative/Transnational course requirement.

Note:  Students may find it especially helpful to have taken or be taking Public International Law and International Human Rights Law (or equivalent). 

This course is structured around three goals: i. to move beyond the formalistic approaches to gender discrimination to envision news ways of thinking about gender equality in specific contexts; ii. to provide retrospective views of the struggles to eliminate gender equality in international and regional treaty systems, and iii. to reconstruct gender equalities in concrete ways, including by the rewriting of court judgments.  The course explores such questions as:  

  • What methods, feminist and otherwise, are used to expose forms of gendered harms of different subgroups of individuals, such as raped women, Indigenous women or women in the health sector?   

  • How can the gender equality analysis be sharpened, for example by reference to different theories of equality?   

  • How can counter- arguments to gender equality be more effectively addressed?  

Judgments will be selected from various human rights treaty bodies to address forms of subordination that are of transnational concern. 

Evaluation
90% for written work is based on two papers of about 3,125-3,750 words each, written for the 2nd and 3rd parts of the course. The first paper will be a case comment on a court decision assigned for class, and the second paper will be rewriting a specific section of a judgment assigned for class. Both papers must reflect an understanding of specific course content, including analytical frameworks, and class discussion. 10% for class participation is based on engagement in class discussion, including short presentations, and one-page response papers for the classes where students are not submitting a longer paper. All responses and papers are due by 12:00 noon the day before the class in which they are discussed. A limited number of students may arrange with the professor to write a SUYRP based on a specified aspect of the course. For those students wanting to write a SUYRP, a proposed outline must be submitted and approved by the end of the add/drop period. If a student completes the SUYRP, that paper will constitute 90% of the grade and will replace the two written papers.
Academic year
2024 - 2025

At a Glance

First Term
Credits
3
Hours
2
SUYRP
Perspective course
ICT

Enrolment

Maximum
20

15 JD
5 LLM/SJD/MSL/SJD U

Schedule

W: 8:30 - 10:20 am