Module Area D: African Perspectives & Law

Learning Objectives

The course aims to enable students to develop critical thinking about the nature and process of development cooperation. The different faces of international relations will be considered in order to understand the changing face of development cooperation. By the end of the course, students will be able to interpret the various forms of international development cooperation, processes and practices.

Learning Content

The module is designed for students interested in international development cooperation in Africa and the relations between Africa and the rest of the world. The course looks at the main actors on the ground and behind the scenes and analyzes their patterns of interaction.

Learning Objectives

The course provides an overview of key constitutional moments and the role of citizens and legal institutions in the creation of constitutional law. It serves to introduce students to the exciting development of constitutional law and jurisprudence in selected African jurisdictions.

Learning Content

This comparative law course introduces students to the constitutional law of selected African countries. The modules combines thematic discussions of a variety of constitutional systems, how constitutions come into being and how they are repealed, and the politics behind key constitutional moments. Themes that run like a thread through the course include: the interplay between constitutional law and politics, and between constitutional law and international law; tensions between constitutionalism and democracy.

Learning Objectives

This module examines the development initiatives launched by African leaders since the attainment of political independence. The study will examine issues of ideology, concepts of development, and the linkage of development issues to nationalism, nation-building, state-building, politics of belonging, citizenship, social cohesion, and poverty alleviation in Africa.

Learning Content

Using case studies, the module explains specific development plans, explanations and charters, and practical steps to implement development. Why development has failed to occur in Africa is discussed in class.

Learning Objectives

The seminar therefore examines the concept of development itself as shaped by a particular epistemology (knowledge), questions the normative foundations of development thinking, and critiques not only classical economic thinking but also economic science.  Using empirical examples from Africa in particular and the global South in general, the seminar argues for disentanglement, ownership and self-improvement, unencumbered by global colonial power matrices.

Learning Content

Development as an idea, discourse, concept, ideology, and practice continues to be the subject of lively debate. This seminar engages in the debate from the perspective of the decolonial epistemic turn. It emphasizes the importance of how knowledge creates reality (how epistemology frames ontology). In this context, viewing development as epistemic creation leads to recognizing the central role of epistemic crisis in the impasse of development. 

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to analyze specific development policies, particularly their dynamics and the conditions for their success or failure. While specific topics will vary, all seminars in this module will cover the state and key features of the Sustainable Development Goals process, sharpening students' ability to understand and evaluate the global agenda that will shape development policies worldwide until at least 2030.

Learning Content

This seminar addresses selected development policy issues, i.e., specific areas of development action such as health or education policy, global trade negotiations, or the interface between security and development issues, to name a few options. The specific content of the seminar varies to provide students with a broad choice. However, the topic is always related to the global sustainable development agenda, and the least developed countries on African soil receive special attention.

Learning Objectives

The seminar is offered as a block seminar and is concluded with a seminar paper.

Learning Content

The selection of topics will vary each semester depending on the topic of the main seminar. 

Learning Objectives

The epistemologies of the Global South embody knowledge that has been silenced and repressed as a result of the unfolding of Euromodernism, empire, and colonialism. These resistant epistemologies of the Global South confront the problem of cognitive injustice, i.e., the practice of not recognizing the different ways through which different people make sense of the world and themselves. Therefore, the epistemologies of the Global South are directly linked to the struggles to restore the existence of those people who were subjected to colonialism/coloniality.

Learning Content

Throughout the seminar, the decolonial analytical category of intersectionality and the production of knowledge will be employed as an essential component of decolonization as it highlights how historically and socially produced ways of life and living are exacerbated by race, gender, class, sexuality, religion, disability, and other cultural and political identity vectors. As a decolonial critical practice, intersectionality creates space for marginalized groups to articulate new and old realities from their own standpoints.

Learning Objectives

The objective of the module is to critically examine the structures and processes of African regional systems for the promotion and protection of human rights. Upon completion of this course, students should be able to competently articulate the role of African institutions in the protection of human rights on the continent. In particular, students should be able to consider and respond to questions such as the appropriateness of the principles and procedures embodied in the documents for African communities.

Learning Content

The module provides an in-depth introduction to the African human rights system. It examines the legal and institutional framework that constitutes the regional protection of human rights within the African Union and highlights the contours of its monitoring system. Various topics related to implementation, children, refugees, women, LGBTI, and access to information are covered to complement this area of law.

Learning Objectives

The aim of the module is to provide an understanding of international legal and institutional arrangements that focus on environmental management. Students should be familiar with both the theoretical and practical dimensions of the legal framework after completing the module.

Learning Content

The module highlights several key aspects of international environmental law. It provides an introduction to the principles of international environmental law (such as the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and the precautionary principle), issues related to the protection of the environment (hazardous activities, waste, air pollution), the conservation of the environment (species, biodiversity) and the use/exploitation of environmental resources (trade in animal parts, genetic resources, genetically modified organisms).

Learning Objectives

This module will provide students with an overview of the essential features of various African legal systems, as well as current issues in African jurisdictions. The course serves as an introduction to legal pluralistic jurisprudence for students.

Learning Content

The module provides students with an introduction to various legal systems on the African continent. Substantive discussions of indigenous legal systems, colonial law, and international law will be conducted. Further, issues of legal conflict resolution, access to justice and human rights, good governance and regional integration are addressed. The role of Africa in the global legal order is repeatedly discussed.

Learning Objectives

The module aims to provide students with a critical overview of the interconnectedness of a wide variety of actors on the African continent and to convey the complexity of social and political processes.

Learning Content

The module consists of changing courses, therefore there are differences in the thematic orientation. In general, the course serves to analyze different political actors on the African continent.