Human Rights and International Criminal Law

Catalog description

This course examines the legal framework for the application of transnational and international law to ensure that the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole - such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes - do not go unpunished. The course reviews relevant human rights law and the work of international criminal tribunals, including the Nuremberg Tribunal, the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the International Criminal Court, as well as hybrid tribunals and national courts. Specific topics include the challenges posed by state sovereignty; the extraterritorial jurisdiction of states; extradition; and the varied criminal law approaches adopted by international criminal tribunals. Current challenges posed by countries such as Myanmar and Russia are also examined, in addition to the effectiveness and limitations of action by the United Nations.