Singapore

“Asia and International Law” is a specialist course about PIL in relation to Asia and especially ASEAN. The course begins with theory as well as current and emerging issues, and the colonial history of Western domination. We then focus on the current rise of Asia and ASEAN, and especially new and emerging issues . Students should have an understanding of the basics of public international law and be prepared to identify and undertake a research paper for in-class presentation and assessment.

This seminar explores and maps the connections between public international law and Asia, both currently and historically. The rise of Asia, especially in the wake of the global financial crisis, forms the context of the course. Asia’s continuing economic growth and increasing regionalism marks a contrast to past decades and is leading many to think of a shift in global power. At the same time, relations between major Asian powers between themselves and with the USA are unsettled on some issues whether these relate to territorial claims or global issues such as human rights and the environment. The seminar considers the implications and possible impacts of this projected rise and shift in power on international law, the norms of the international community and the relations between Asia and the Western powers, as well as among Asians inter se.

International Humanitarian law (IHL), also known as the Law of Armed Conflict, establishes the principles for the conduct of hostilities during armed conflicts, regardless whether this occurs in a situation of warfare between states or between non-state actors. It can be used as a measure to determine the international legality of means and methods of warfare applied in a situation of armed conflict. This course will examine the fundamental concepts of IHL and its development up to the present day. It seeks to enable a critical understanding of the various instruments that establishes present day rules of IHL , such as the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, the four 1948 Geneva Conventions, the 1977 Geneva Protocols and subsequent IHL instruments including the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, the 1996 Conventional Weapons Convention; the 1997 Landmines Convention as well as the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court. The course will also consider the applicability as well as the appropriateness of the rules and the systems established by these instruments in the light of Customary International Law and the present day world political order. This will be from the viewpoint of a developing country which has minimal or no influence in the formulation of these rules.

International Environmental Law 2016 (IEL) is a specialized course on international law in relation to environmental protection and sustainability. Dealing with both theoretical and practical aspects, it will consider international developments in law and policy and how they can relate to Asia, using specific examples of current issues.

This course critically examines the universalist aspirations pretensions of international law with specific reference to Asia, which contains 60% of the world’s population and is perhaps the most diverse world region in terms of culture, religion, political systems and standards of economic development. It has its fair share of systemic human rights violators. Is human rights law the new global 'standard of civilisation and if so, is it genuinely 'universal' or a form of neo-colonial moral imperialism, working in tandem with neo-liberal economic policies which advantage some states while injuring others?

Through critical inquiry and specific case studies, the course seeks to make concrete the implications of the application of ‘abstract’ principles of international human right law and to shed light into how human rights may influence notions of domestic governance and whether and to what extent it can genuinely improve the promotion of human dignity and social welfare. Where appropriate, references will be made to global norms as well as regional human rights standards from the Inter-American, European and African systems, as useful comparators.

This module examines principal corporate law issues from a comparative perspective. As for jurisdictions, it primarily focuses on Japan and Korea in comparison with UK and US. Beginning with the peculiar ownership structure of Japan and Korea and the nature of their agency problems, the module explores various legal strategies employed to address these challenges. The topics to be covered include shareholder power, corporate organizational structure, independent directors, fiduciary duties, shareholder lawsuits, hostile takeovers, and creditor protection.

This course provides a comprehensive overview of international climate change law as well as examines the legal and regulatory responses of Asian jurisdictions to climate change. The first part of the course will examine the rules and institutions established by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement. The second part will focus on climate governance beyond the UN climate regime, particularly the role of cities and international financial institutions in governing climate change. In the final part, we examine how selected Asian jurisdictions, including Singapore and China, have adopted laws and regulatory frameworks for climate change mitigation and adaptation.

ASEAN leaders agreed to create a single market - the ASEAN Economic Community - by 2015. Due to sovereignty concerns, ASEAN leaders did not create a single supranational authority to regulate this market. This course examines how ASEAN member states and institutions are filling in the vacuum through formal and informal means. In the context of international law and inter-state organizations, students will understand the emerging interactions between regional policymaking and domestic laws and policies and the prospects for ASEAN as an economic entity governed by rules.

Students will learn the concept of news as well as news values. This includes the difference between news and views and the ethical considerations that go into the reporting of a story. They will acquire the basic tools of reporting, especially the ability to ask good questions and mining data for new information. On the editing front, they will view material from the perspective of an editor and how to package information into a comprehensible bundle for the layman.

Social networks are here to stay and will have increasing impact in our society and life. Through a wide variety of social network platforms, users are actively communicating with friends and strangers on a wide variety of topics; sharing all kinds of information ranging from text, photos, videos and venue check-ins; following activities of others, and commenting on each other’s posts. This ushers in a new era of communications that involves complex user relationships, and new modes of information exchanges. The ability to understand the complex exchanges in such social networks and their implications to society is thus very important.

This module aims to introduce the technical aspects of this problem, where students will learn about the techniques of analyzing the complex social relation networks between users, the contents they shared, and the ways contents and events propagate through the social networks. The analysis will provide better understanding of the concerns and interests of users, and uncover live and emerging events that will affect the community. The social network to be studied include microblogs sites like Twitter, social communication sites like Facebook, location sharing sites like 4Square, photo sharing sites like Instagram and Flicker, as well as forums and blogs.

This is an introductory module to the field of human computer interaction (HCI) design which involves the study, planning, and design of the interaction between people (users) and computers. This module will cover the basics of relevant issues, theories, and insights about the human side, the technical side, and the interaction (interface) between the two.