Judicial Approaches to Balancing Rights: Current Challenges

2021/2022

Учебный год

ENG

Обучение ведется на английском языке

3

Кредиты

Кто читает:

Департамент публичного права

Статус:

Курс по выбору

Когда читается:

1-й курс, 4 модуль

Преподаватель

Мосин Сергей Анатольевич

Course Syllabus

Abstract

Constitutional courts in democratic countries are often confronted with the need to strike a fair balance between fundamental rights and interests of the general public. What doctrines and theories may assist the courts in reconciling conflicting rights and interests? The course “Judicial approaches to balancing rights: current challenges” is devoted to exploring the jurisprudence on constitutional rights’ restrictions that aim at countering such paramount contemporary threats, as terrorism, extremism, global pandemic, economic crisis, etc. It develops the students’ critical thinking by engaging them in a thorough comparison of possible solutions to highly controversial legal dilemmas. The course advances the students’ abilities to generate compelling legal arguments, mitigate conflicts, draw on the doctrines and principles of constitutional law for a comparative analysis of related problems. The course is designed particularly for students interested in performing comparative research and/or fancying a career in constitutional and human rights litigation, in legislative or judicial bodies. The course is conducted in English.

Learning Objectives

• The course aims at enabling the students to perform a critical comparative analysis of legal texts (court decisions, legislative acts, international treaties) related to restrictions of fundamental rights. Specific goals of the course are: • to examine major constitutional doctrines and techniques related to striking a balance between fundamental rights and legitimate public interests; • to compare and reflect upon alternative approaches of constitutional courts and the European Court of Human Rights to assessing the proportionality of restrictions of certain constitutional rights; • to enable the students to formulate and substantiate arguments favouring or opposing specific restrictions of rights; to find legal solutions for matters of high controversy using the inferences of comparative constitutional analysis.

Expected Learning Outcomes

• The course aims at enabling the students to perform a critical comparative analysis of legal texts (court decisions, legislative acts, international treaties) related to restrictions of fundamental rights. Specific goals of the course are: • to examine major constitutional doctrines and techniques related to striking a balance between fundamental rights and legitimate public interests;
• • to enable the students to formulate and substantiate arguments favouring or opposing specific restrictions of rights.

Course Contents

• Constitutional rights: scope and the extent of their protection
• Rights balancing and proportionality
• Proportionality and its components
• Proportionality stricto sensu (balancing)
• Balancing rights in judicial practice. Round table.

Assessment Elements

• Class participation
  The control element is carried out in an offline format (in the event of a worsening epidemiological situation, the control element format can be changed to online)
• Round table
  The control element is carried out in an offline format (in the event of a worsening epidemiological situation, the control element format can be changed to online)
• Exam
  Экзамен проводится с использованием дистанционных технологий

Interim Assessment

• 2021/2022 4th module
  0.2 * Round table + 0.3 * Exam + 0.5 * Class participation

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Barak, A. (2012). Proportionality : Constitutional Rights and Their Limitations. Cambridge University Press.

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Aharon Barak. (2006). The Judge in a Democracy. Princeton University Press.
• Cassel, D. (2016). Fundamental Rights in Europe: Challenges and Transformations in Comparative Perspective. Human Rights Law Review, 16(2), 389–395. https://doi.org/10.1093/hrlr/ngw008