Law in the face of political violence and mass atrocity reveals some of the most pressing issues in global politics and international law today. With the Russia/Ukraine war, the Israel/Palestine conflict, the U.S./Israel-Iran war and the broader destabilization of the Middle East, many experts warn that the foundations of the post-World War II system of international law and the liberal ‘rules-based international order’ are not only under attack but are at risk of disintegrating.
Against the backdrop of current events in global politics this course will provide students with an introduction to the main concepts, rules and institutions of the field of International Criminal Law. It will explore the core international crimes of aggression, war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, as well as peripheral or emerging international crimes including terrorism and ecocide. Students will gain a foundational knowledge of the field, including how it is situated in the broader contexts of public international law, international human rights law and Canadian criminal law.
While the core structures of the field are now well-established, the goals of international criminal prosecutions are more elusive. The figure of the international criminal has come to stand in, often at one and the same time, for the human rights violator, the political enemy, and the social, philosophical and theological scapegoat. International criminal law is said to, variously: subject the use of force to the rule of law; punish the worst crimes and deter their future commission; create an accurate historical record of mass atrocity; provide redress and reparation to victims; address threats to international peace and security; facilitate transition from authoritarian regimes to democratic systems; and provide a common vocabulary through which to articulate the legal regulation of acts that ‘shock the conscience of mankind.’ However, these objectives do not sit easily together, from either a theoretical or practical perspective.
We will explore the sometimes-contradictory objectives of the field with a view to equipping students with a critical toolkit with which to assess the effectiveness of strategic and tactical international criminal law interventions in global politics. This conversation will be rooted in both the regulation of present-day violence and the broader history of the field, including the Nuremberg trials, the ad hoc tribunals and domestic prosecution efforts like the Eichmann trial. We will look at International Criminal Law as a global criminal justice project deployed by specific actors for specific purposes. Students are invited to engage these questions as active political agents, asking whether, and how, this body of law and set of institutions and practices could be deployed to secure substantive policy objectives.
Using case studies and interactive learning, students will be asked to concretely evaluate the stakes of international criminal justice across a variety of jurisdictional contexts, asking how—and for whom—international criminal law might be a good thing or a bad thing. Various theoretical lenses will be deployed throughout, challenging students to evaluate doctrine and case law considering fundamental questions of global jurisdiction, constituency, and legitimacy.
Method of Evaluation:
(1) Attendance and participation in class discussions (25%)
(2) Case study exercise (75%): Students will work individually and in groups to identify and formulate a case study rooted in contemporary challenges in the field using a detailed guided format provided by the instructor. Evaluation will involve both individual written components and an oral in-class "moot" of the issues identified. The case study will be developed and completed iteratively over the course of the term, culminating in the oral exercise. As such, there is no final evaluation for this course. Students will be graded individually on each portion of the exercise.