International Criminal Justice (ILO-L213)

Spring 2024 · ILO L213 · Tufts University · 3 credits · Undergraduate

Following a long fallow period after Nuremberg, the demand for accountability for mass atrocities in the 1990s and since has catalyzed the creation of a range of mechanisms of international criminal justice. This course explores the contours of international criminal law and the institutions that apply it. We will consider the scope and boundaries of the core international crimes - genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes - and the range of actors potentially liable for those violations. In so doing, we will examine the application of this body of law through international courts, such as the International Criminal Court and the UN tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, hybrid or special courts, such as those in Sierra Leone and Cambodia, and domestic courts exercising universal jurisdiction. The course will examine the reach and limits of these bodies in confronting impunity, the tension between state sovereignty and international criminal justice, and the problem of selectivity.

Course codes: ILO-L213

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