Content and objectives
This course looks at international economic relationships from a human development perspective. The United Nations Development Program introduced the concept of human development in the 1990s, as an attempt to define development as comprehensively as possible. The concept of human development thus includes economic, environmental as well as human rights concerns. The main question underlying this course is whether international law has been able to devise regulatory frameworks for these different concerns that are equally strong in providing incentives for States and non-State actors to set policies in line with the human development concept. A conscious effort will be made to include sources from across the world, that represent conflicting views on the issue.
This course gives an introduction to these rules of international law that aim at promoting human development. During the course, students will:

• Review definitions of development;
• Discuss conflicting views on the impact of economic globalisation on the environment and social equality;
• Reflect on the role of law in fostering development, both at the domestic and the international level;
• Discuss the contribution of international and regional economic and financial organisations to human development:
• Study attempts at regulating corporate actors, and self-regulation initiatives by companies;
• Study the role of international non-governmental organisations in international law and relations; and
• Discuss the relationship between international trade law, international environmental law, and international human rights law.

• Declaration on the Right to Development (UN GA resolution 41/128) (4 December 1986)
• United Nations Millennium Declaration (UN GA resolution 55/2) (18 September 2000)
• J. Klugman, ‘Overview’ from World Bank (2006), A Sourcebook for Poverty Reduction Strategies, 1-24
• M MacLean (ed.) (1997), Public International Law, 1-25, 38-50
• P. McAuslan, In the beginning was law…an intellectual odyssey (2004), 83 p.
• P. Schiff Berman, ‘From International Law to Law and Globalization’, Columbia Journal of Transnational Law (2005), 43: 485-556
• K. De Feyter, World Development Law (2001), 35-46
• R. Pinkney, Democracy in the Third World (2003), 7-20, 205-221
• H. Hagen, Political Order in Sub-Saharan Africa – the European View of African States at stake, 31p.
• Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Awas Tingni judgment (31 August 2001), 51-89
• S. Radelet, A primer on foreign aid (2006), 20 p.
• Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2 March 2005)
• Joint European NGO Report, EU aid: genuine leadership or misleading figures? (2006), 1-11
• World Bank, Global monitoring report 2006 (2006), 1-17
• 7. World Bank and UN Development Agencies UN Charter (26 June 1945)
• K. De Feyter, World Development Law (2001), 69-93
• T. Zweifel, ‘The World Bank’ in International Organizations & Democracy (2006), 85-100
• J. Faundez, ‘The Rule of Law Enterprise’ in Democratization (2005), 12,4: 567-586
• World Bank Inspection Panel, India Ecodevelopment Project (April 1998)
• A. Lindblom, Non-Governmental Organizations in International Law (2005), 3-52
• B. Rajagopal, ‘International Law and Social Movements: Challenges of Theorizing Resistance’, Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 41 (2003) :397-433
• K. De Feyter, World Development Law (2001), 173-208
• OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises (27 June 2000)
• OECD Watch, Five Years On. A Review of the OECD Guidelines and National Contact Points (2005), 15-25, 43-49
• P. Sands, Principles of International Environmental Law (2003), 1056-1073
• ICSID, Santa Elena v. Costa Rica (17 February 2000)
• ICSID, Aguas Argentinas v. Argentina (19 May 2005)
• Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal, Neo-liberal policies of European transnational corporations in Latin America and the Caribbean (12 May 2006)