For a complete list of course offerings in Human Rights, including full descriptions and faculty who will be teaching the offerings in 2008-2009, refer to the online Curriculum Guide.
Columbia Law School has pioneered the introduction of human rights into legal education and continues to offer the most comprehensive array of courses and extracurricular activities in the field. The Columbia program is both intellectually rich and intimately related to the work of the "activist" international human rights movement, including offering an outstanding year-long Human Rights Clinic. The human rights curriculum also provides intellectual support for an array of other extra-curricular activities at Columbia, including programs sponsored by the Law School's summer internship program, as well as for opportunities with the United Nations and other international organizations and human rights advocacy groups in New York City.
The human rights curriculum is designed to promote understanding of and to establish professional competence in handling the basic concepts embodied by the international human rights movement and their reflection in international law and international institutions, as well as to understand their relation to rights in the United States.
The basic course in Human Rights is supplemented by various advanced colloquia and seminars in human rights and constitutionalism, including comparative law courses. Many other courses throughout the Law School are substantially devoted to issues of human rights. Students might also consider courses and seminars in other parts of the University, notably in the Department of Philosophy, Teachers College and the School of Interational and Public Affairs (SIPA).
