France

Using case studies from various domains (environment, health, technological and industrial accidents, security, new technologies) and countries, this course explores how social sciences have conceptualized risk over time and how risk has become a central object of political attention. It considers how the notion of risk has become a central concern of today's societies, as Ulrich Beck predicted in the 1990s; and how the language and techniques of risk analysis, first developed in the realm of insurance, have become key to modern governance and to the operation of contemporary states. The course explores how global crises, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the climate crisis, have further reinforced a perception that risks are essential components of our daily lives and major concerns for governments. 

This course introduces students to what lawyers and jurists call legal reasoning; the ways and mechanisms through which lawyers frame their understanding of social conflicts and structure legal arguments. Not unlike other professions, lawyers tend to perceive and communicate about the world through the lenses of the typical jargon and tools of their trade, such as rights and obligations, authority, and the fundamental conflict between freedom, security, and order. The course also studies how lawyers mobilize legal and non-legal elements, including rules, morals, constitutional principles, language, and economic or sociological facts and arguments, to frame a particular situation and argue for a particular position; convince a decision maker; and achieve certain goals, whether their own, those of their client, or those of justice or policy. This course is not an introduction to law or legal theory but rather an introduction to the lawyer's toolbox to argue and win a case. Discussion includes issues and phenomena of the digital transformation like Artificial Intelligence, privacy, and the regulation of the Internet to discuss legal reasoning in the 21st century. Course materials are primarily from Anglo Saxon legal culture and, where possible, European Union law.

This course provides an overview of international law and its approach to several burning security issues of global scope, including terrorism, forced displacement, cyberwarfare, pandemics, and disinformation. This thematic overview imparts a basic understanding of the international legal landscape surrounding current security policy conversations, while reflecting on the strengths and weaknesses of international law. In the process, the course also exposes most branches of international law, including the law regulating armed conflict and the use of force, human rights law, refugee law, and international criminal law.