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Lecturer(s)
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Přidalová Eva, Mgr.
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Šťastná Terezie, Mgr.
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Course content
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1. Week: Introduction to course conditions, division of topics, assignment and determination of presentation dates. More detailed outline of the first topic and sending of materials for preparation for the first topic. Introduction to human rights: Human rights. Balancing rights with responsibilities. What are universal human rights? History and present. 2. Week: The Language of Human Rights. Universal Declaration of Human Rights and European Convention on Human Rights ? working with text ? lexical and grammatical exercises. The European Court of Human Rights 3. Week, synchronous meeting: Discussion and reflection focusing on human rights and the cases presented. Interactive lexical and terminological exercises. Discussion in small groups and practice of newly acquired vocabulary. 4. Week: Introduction to Sustainable Development. From poverty to prosperity: Understanding Economic Development. 5. Week: Sustainable Development and related legislation 6. Week: Discussion and reflection focusing on sustainable development and the cases presented. Interactive lexical and terminology exercises. Small group discussions and practice of newly acquired vocabulary. 7. Week: Gender Equality - Linguistic aspects of gender rights and discrimination. Hate speech 8. Week: Gender-based violence. European Commission. (2022). Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on combating violence against women and domestic violence. Directive (EU) 2024/1385 on combating violence against women and domestic violence 9. Week: Discussion and reflection focusing on gender equality, gender-based violence, LGBTQI community rights, and presented cases. Interactive lexical and terminological exercises. Small group discussions and practice of newly acquired vocabulary. 10. Week: Consumer Law ? Consumer protection rights. ADR ? Alternative Dispute Resolution and collective redress. Enforcement of consumer rights, out-of-court dispute resolution, and class actions Week 11: Consumer protection law terminology Week 12: Discussion and reflection focusing on consumer protection rights and greenwashing. Interactive lexical and terminological exercises. Small group discussions and practice with newly acquired vocabulary Week 13 ? 1st final exam
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Learning activities and teaching methods
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Monologic Lecture(Interpretation, Training), Dialogic Lecture (Discussion, Dialog, Brainstorming), Work with Text (with Book, Textbook), Group work
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Learning outcomes
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The course develops English legal terminology through four main topics: human rights, sustainable development, gender equality, and consumer law. Students will become familiar with the specifics of legal language (expressions, specifics of different types of legal documents, etc.). They will work with authentic documents such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights, judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, and EU directives. The course combines asynchronous preparation with case study presentations at synchronous meetings. Students learn to navigate the EUR-Lex and IATE databases, work with multilingual legal texts, and perform linguistic analyses, on the basis of which they will acquire new terminology and grammatical and lexical phenomena specific to legal English. They will have the opportunity to present case studies and argue about the topics covered in English using their newly acquired vocabulary. They will also learn to identify lexical means used in hate speech and gender-based violence, for example, as well as other means of expression used to describe human rights violations. We will also shed light on the linguistic specifics of human rights reporting against the backdrop of human rights conventions. Assessment includes a presentation with a handout, active participation in discussions, and a final test. The course is intended for students with a B2+ level of English and prepares them for working with international legal documentation.
After completing the course, students will be able to: - Identify and analyze lexical means associated with human rights violations, for example in the context of economic development and poverty in relation to SDG 1 (No Poverty) and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions) - Navigate the terminology used in the European Court of Human Rights database and understand legal documents relating to human rights in English - Understand the complexity of the language used in gender issues, including gender-based violence and hate speech in connection with SDG 5 (Gender Equality) and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities). They will also learn to identify lexical means used in hate speech and gender-based violence, as well as other means of expression used to describe human rights violations. They will learn which linguistic means in English represent hate speech and how a more appropriate choice of language can be used to express similar content in a correct manner (gender-neutral language, political correctness). - Present cases of successful and unsuccessful economic development and their impact on sustainability in the context of SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) and respond to them through discussion in English using newly acquired vocabulary. - Work with multilingual legal documents and use terminology databases such as EUR-Lex and IATE for comparative analysis of European legislation terminology. - Communicate professionally in English on topics related to human rights, sustainable development, and consumer law by learning terminology related to consumer protection, sustainable consumption, etc. during the course. - Present case studies and lead discussions on the ethical and legal aspects of sustainable development in English
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Prerequisites
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The completion of this course is not conditioned upon completion of any other courses
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Assessment methods and criteria
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Student performance, Seminar Work, Written exam
- Preparation and presentation of a presentation Students will record their presentations and share them. The topic will be presented in a reasonably long and clear presentation lasting approximately 10-15 minutes (minimum) and 30 minutes (maximum). Students who do not give their presentation on the agreed date are not eligible to take the final test. The presentation will be evaluated in terms of content, lexical and grammatical correctness, clarity, contribution, and presentation skills. The presentation will also be evaluated by the student's peers in the form of oral feedback and discussion during synchronous meetings, where students will respond to the presented topics in English. Active participation in the discussion will also be included in the assessment. The presentation will be based on high-quality sources, primarily official institutional databases, academic articles, case studies, and monographs. Students may use generative AI (e.g., Claude, Perplexity, Chat GPT, Copilot, SciSpace, and others) to create their presentations. Slides whose content has been generated in this way must be clearly marked at the bottom with "the content of this slide has been partially or entirely generated by XY artificial intelligence." The content of the generated parts should not exceed 20% of the presentation. However, even content generated in this way should be reviewed and ideally supplemented with information from professional sources. At the end of the presentation, there will be 5 questions (e.g., in the form of multiple choice or interactive exercises) to test attention. These questions may appear in the final test. - Preparation of a handout The student will prepare a "handout" for their presentation, which will be 2 to 4 standard pages long. The handout will clearly summarize the content of the presentation and the most important facts. A handout does not mean printed slides in note mode, but a prepared outline expanded with the most important points, which will be written out in continuous text with appropriate lexical and grammatical quality. The handout should ideally include 2-3 footnotes citing the most important professional sources from which the information was taken. The student will ensure the distribution of their handout and recorded presentation to other students in the course, e.g., in printed form, by uploading it to Moodle, sending it by email, or sharing it on a pre-agreed platform. - Sending the handout and presentation to the teacher The student will send their presentation and handout (in doc/docx and ppt format, or in another format if agreed) to the teacher at the above-mentioned email address no later than 24 hours before the relevant seminar. Students may request feedback or revision of specific parts of the presentation that they are unsure about. Submission and approval of the content of the presentation and handout by the instructor is one of the conditions for passing the exam. - Final test In order to pass the exam, it is necessary to complete a final test consisting of 20 multiple-choice questions with four possible answers, one of which is correct. To pass the colloquium, a minimum score of 65% is required, which corresponds to 13 correct answers out of 20 possible. The final test will be based on the material covered in the joint meetings ? i.e., the content presented by the instructor, the content of the presentations with handouts, and the assigned readings and tasks. Prerequisites ? further information on course requirements: Completion of this course is not conditional on the successful completion of another course. The minimum language level required is B2+.
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Recommended literature
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Alkiviadou, N. (2025). Hate speech, positive obligations and free speech: The ECtHR's expanding framework in Minasyan and Others v. Armenia. Strasbourg Observers.
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Arbour, M.-E. (2022). The Volkswagen scandal at the CJEU: Defeat devices between the conformity guarantee and environment law. European Journal of Risk Regulation, 13(4), 670-681.
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Council of Europe. (n.d.). Declaration on a common understanding of international law to cyberspace..
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Court of Justice of the European Union. (2020). Verein für Konsumenteninformation v. Volkswagen AG, Case C-343/19, ECLI:EU:C:2020:534. EUR-Lex.
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European Court of Human Rights. (n.d.). HUDOC database [Case law database]. Council of Europe..
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European Parliament and Council of the European Union. (2024). Directive (EU) 2024/1385 on combating violence against women and domestic violence. Official Journal of the European Union.
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European Parliament. (n.d.). Environment policy: General principles and basic framework.
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Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (n.d.). Right to food guidelines.
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Human Rights Watch. (n.d.). Human rights reports and publications.
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ScienceDirect. (n.d.). European energy policy. In Social sciences topics..
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United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. (n.d.). Paris Agreement and climate law resources..
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United Nations General Assembly. (1948). Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Resolution 217 A).. United Nations.
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United Nations. (n.d.). The 17 goals: Sustainable development goals..
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University of Oxford. (n.d.). From poverty to prosperity: Understanding economic development [Online course]. edX.
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