International Criminal Law

Catalog description

This seminar examines the questions surrounding international criminal law as a separate discipline and the sources of and basic principles underlying the subject. Particular attention will be paid to the question of jurisdiction over international crimes. It will consider international crimes such as aggression; war crimes, crimes against humanity, terrorism, and torture. It will also consider the treatment of past human rights violations in post conflict situations. It will further consider procedural aspects of international criminal law and the forums that deal with international crimes. In that context, it will look at the structure, jurisdiction and jurisprudence of Truth Commissions; the International Criminal Court (The Rome Statute); the former Yugoslavia Tribunal; Rwanda Tribunal and mixed tribunals such as Cambodia Tribunal and Sierra Leone Tribunal. The format will be class discussions of assigned readings. Final assessment in the course will be based on participation in class discussions and a written paper on a subject falling within the themes of the seminar. Paper topics must be submitted to the instructor for review not later than the third week of class. Each student is expected to give a presentation based on his or her paper to the class.