LAW 6075 The United Nations: Law and Practice
Programme: LLB Undergraduate
Assignment Brief: 2021-2022
| Module Title | The United Nations: Law and Practice | Level 6 |
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| Assessment Point | 1 | |
ANONYMOUS MARKING
Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this module you will be able to:
- Demonstrate knowledge of the composition and the workings of the United Nations, including the UN organ structure and the activities of the UN Security Council (UNSC).
- Demonstrate the ability to solve practical problems through the application of legal principles to factual situations as they relate to the student’s UNSC member state perspective.
- Demonstrate skills of analysis of the UN Charter and the International Bill of Rights, and apply appropriate member state perspectives on the sanctions regimes, humanitarian action and human rights standards.
- Demonstrate the ability to make proper use of the English language for providing an appropriately written submission of a member state speech and a voting rationale.
| Assessment for this module |
| Summative Assessment
Each student must use the “Summative Assessment Template,” and provide their submission of: a) Member State Speech; and b) Voting Rationale on a selected issue. You must identify which Member State you represent and provide the UN legislation and case law, and relevant regional and domestic perspectives, to support your arguments. This information is presented to further the national interest of your Member State at the Security Council.
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| Additional guidance and information
Follow the guidance on the “Summative Assessment Template” including the word count specifications for each section, and the advice on the appropriate UN organs to research. Each student will use the Coursework Booklet on the “Crisis in Shunibia” for key information through the Member State profile, and UN research as it relates to their Member State. The total word count is: a) Member State Speech – 1000words, and b) Voting Rationale – 3000. The total word limit for the coursework is 4000. |
| Formative Assessment
Each student must fill in the “Formative Assessment Template,” to provide key information on: a) Member State Speech; and b) Voting Rationale on a selected issue. You must identify which Member State you represent and provide the key UN legislation and case law, and relevant regional and domestic perspectives. This information is presented to further the national interest of your Member State at the Security Council. |
Learning Resources:
| Essential |
| Simon Chesterman, Ian Johnstone and David M Malone, Law and Practice of the United Nations: Documents and Commentary (2nd edn, Oxford University Press 2016)
Rhona KM Smith, Textbook on International Human Rights (7th edn, Oxford University Press 2015) |
| Recommended – the text is academically valid, but not essential reading for this specific module. |
| Thomas G Weiss and Sam Daws, The Oxford Handbook on the United Nations, (Oxford University Press 2008)
Malcolm Shaw, International Law (8th edn, Cambridge University Press 2017)
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| Websites |
| UN – http://www.un.org/en/index.html
The UN Security Council – http://www.un.org/en/sc/ The UN Human Rights Council – http://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/hrc/pages/hrcindex.aspx The UN Special Procedures – http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/SP/Pages/Welcomepage.aspx The Universal Periodic Review – http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/UPRMain.aspx UN Country (Member State) pages – http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/Pages/HumanRightsintheWorld.aspx UN Web TV – http://webtv.un.org/ Human Rights Committee – jurisprudence – http://juris.ohchr.org/ Country Profile – for human rights issues see, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/Pages/HumanRightsintheWorld.aspx |
Assessment criteria
Please note that, under the Course Regulations, you are entitled to only two attempts to pass each assignment. You are strongly advised to take every opportunity to submit work as failure to submit counts as a fail. Should you fail an assignment, it is very important that you arrange a tutorial with the marker so that you can improve your work.
How to submit your work
You should submit your work electronically on Moodle. If your work is submitted later than the stated deadline you will be penalised as follows:
- Assessments submitted up to 1 hour after the published deadline will receive no penalty. This will ensure that students will not be unfairly penalised for any slowing of systems around deadlines. Please note you should still aim to upload by the published deadline.
- Assessments submitted between 1 and 24 hours after the published deadline will be reduced by 5% of actual mark. Example – an original mark of 60% will be reduced by 3% to a mark of 57%.
- Assessments submitted between 24 hours and 1 week (5 working days) after the published deadline will be reduced by 10% of actual mark. Example – an original mark of 60% will be reduced by 6% to a mark of 54%.
- Later than 5 working days of submission date – your work will not be marked and will be recorded as a fail.
- The mark is below the pass mark for the assessment (40% for undergraduate or 50% for postgraduate). The reduction (either 5% or 10%) will reduce the mark to below the pass mark. In this case the assessment will be capped off at the pass mark if already passed
Cheating and Plagiarism
You are reminded of the University Disciplinary Procedures which refer to cheating, details of which may be found on the BCU Document Library http://diglib.bcu.ac.uk/webgate/dlib/templates/JAWS/index.asp in the University Policies, Regulations and Procedures section. Except where the assessment of an assignment is group-based, the final piece of work which is submitted must be your own work. Close similarity between assignments is likely to lead to an investigation for cheating. It is not advisable to show your completed work to your colleagues or to share and exchange disks.
You must also ensure that you acknowledge all sources you have used. Work which is discovered to be the result of collusion or plagiarism will be dealt with under the University’s Disciplinary Procedures, and the penalty may involve the loss of academic credits. You should use Turnitin as a tool for checking your work for plagiarism; your module tutor will be able to help you with this.
If you have any doubts about the extent to which you are allowed to collaborate with your colleagues, or the conventions for acknowledging the source you have used, you should first of all consult module documentation and, if still unclear, your module tutor.
Assignment Word Count
There is a limit to the number of words you should be writing in this assignment. The word limit should be clear to you when you have finished reading this brief, but do please see your tutor if you are not sure about what you have to do.
The front cover sheet you will complete before handing in your work will ask you to confirm the word limit for that assignment and also the number of words you have actually used. The word count should include all quotes and citations within the main text, but should exclude appendices, abstracts and bibliographies. There are penalties for exceeding the word limit you have been given by your tutors, but there is no penalty for writing fewer words. The penalties for exceeding the limit are as follows:
Students who exceed the word limit by up to 10% will not be penalised.
Students who exceed the word limit by more than 10%, your marks will be reduced by 10% of the mark allocated to you ie 60% mark will be reduced by 6 percentage points to 54%. If a penalty results in your mark going below 40%, 40% will be awarded.