International Criminal Law - Master

The course concerns the contemporary international law framework for the prosecution of the most serious crimes, including the crime of aggression, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

International criminal law (ICL) is a sub-discipline of public international law, historically rooted in the international and national transitional justice cases (including the famous Nuremberg Trails) effected in the aftermath of World War II. The Charter of the United Nations (1945), the Nuremberg Principles (1946), and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), jointly created a new paradigm of international law. The 1949 Geneva Conventions on rights and obligations towards society, civilians, and prisoners of war, during occupation and armed conflict, complemented this framework. In particular, the individual person was now seen as a subject for legal rights and criminal liability directly under international law. Apart from the Genocide Convention (1948), further ICLdevelopments were for several decades subdued by the Cold War. Since the establishment of the Yugoslavia and Rwanda tribunals in 1993 and 1994 respectively, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 1998, ICL has developed immensely. Yet there are important methodological, institutional, and political constraints on the functioning and further developments of ICL.

The course revisits the history of international criminal courts, before discussing the institutional, normative, and political context of ICL. Emphasis is put on the special nature of the crimes in question. Do all these crimes have any common features? How do they differ from other crimes? Is ICL essentially limited to mass crimes committed by and through states and other organized power structures? Should e.g. terrorism, piracy and torture also become part of ICL, or does ICL only concern the so-called «core crimes», such as war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide? Why has it been so difficult to prosecute crimes of aggression since Nuremberg? What is the role of the legality principle in this field of law from the Nuremberg judgment to contemporary ICL?

After introducing such broader issues and perspectives the course moves on to a more detailed analysis of the substantive crime elements. It focuses specifically on the objective structures and the required mental element of the core universal crime categories: «the crime of aggression», «war crimes», «crimes against humanity» and «genocide». The course will also discuss different ways of perpetrating and participating in universal crimes, and hence the need for extended criminal liability through various legal «modes of participation». Personal and structural circumstances excluding liability will also be covered, as will the basic principles of fair trials in international criminal courts.

Since enforcement of criminal liability may take place in domestic jurisdictions, the course will also cover the legal principles of domestic jurisdiction applicable to universal crimes prosecution (territorial jurisdiction, nationality jurisdiction, etc.). The duty of a state to extradite offenders or prosecute such crimes, cooperation with the ICC, and possible limitations on domestic prosecution and trials (amnesties, statute of limitations, and immunities), is also included.

Students will be challenged to discuss and assess the potential and limitations of international criminal justice.

Knowledge

The course provides for thorough knowledge of the basic features of international criminal law, its historical development, its key concepts, its current expression under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its current challenges. This includes thorough knowledge of the core universal crime categories: the crime of aggression, war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

Skills

- The ability to find and apply in a methodologically sound way the legal material needed to assess the conditions for criminal liability under international law;

- The ability to engage critically and reflectively with contemporary (doctrinal and theoretical) debates regarding ICL;

- The ability to write reasoned answers to legal and policy questions in the field of ICL.

- The ability to cooperate with law students from other countries, and gain perspectives on common legal challenges from students from a legal background different than their own,

- The ability to contribute with perspectives from their own country and legal background.

General competence

- Ability to communicate law both orally and in writing, in the English language.

- Ability to work independently as well as in groups.

- Ability to engage with students from other jurisdictions in fruitful discussions.