The world runs on rules. Most people don’t know what they are. This course changes that.

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About this course

Every international trade deal, every armed conflict, every refugee crisis, every climate agreement — they all operate within a legal framework. International law is not abstract theory. It is the architecture that governs how states interact, how individuals are protected across borders and how the global order holds together — imperfectly, but consequentially.

This course covers the full scope of international law in one structured programme: its sources, its history, its eight substantive areas, the actors who create and are bound by it, and the institutions — the United Nations and three international courts — that attempt to enforce it. You will also engage critically with the limits of international law: where enforcement mechanisms are weak, where political interests override legal obligations and where the system genuinely struggles.

Whether you work in law, policy, business, diplomacy or simply want to understand how the world is governed — this course gives you the foundation.

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Skills you will learn

• Understand how international law is created, where its authority comes from and how it is enforced without a global government to enforce it

• Navigate the eight areas of international law — from humanitarian law and human rights to trade, environmental and refugee law — and understand what each one governs and why it matters

• Analyse the role of the United Nations — its six principal organs, its specialised agencies, its genuine achievements and its well-documented failures

• Distinguish between the ICJ, the ICC and the ECHR — understanding which court has jurisdiction over what, who can bring cases and what happens when states refuse to comply

• Understand state sovereignty and why it remains the foundational tension in international law — the conflict between national interest and international obligation that shapes every major dispute

• Engage critically with international law as a system — recognising where it works, where it is exploited and why it matters even when it is broken