International Criminal Law

This course examines the general principles of international criminal law, providing a practical and theoretical framework for the rules, concepts and legal constructs key to the subject. Jurisprudence will be included to assist the student to fully understand the core concept of international criminal law.

At the end of this course, a successful student should be able to:

Define international Criminal Law and determine the various stages of its development;
Assess the positive and negative legacies of the military tribunals and ad hoc tribunals and how they provided key foundation for the development of international criminal courts;
To develop critical understanding of the future of the international criminal justice in the light of the contemporary challenges and criticisms of the international criminal court;
Demonstrate knowledge of debates and jurisprudence developed around the elements of core international crimes which are under the jurisdiction of international criminal courts.
Be able to apply the substantive principles of international criminal law to analyse case studies on international criminal justice;
Understand the main modes of liability recognized for core crimes and be able to apply these to facts patterns.

Code du cours: DRT019

Enseignant : Dr Stanslaus Muyebe

Course description:

Objectives:

At the end of this course, a successful student should be able to:

Define international Criminal Law and determine the various stages of its development;
Assess the positive and negative legacies of the military tribunals and ad hoc tribunals and how they provided key foundation for the development of international criminal courts;
To develop critical understanding of the future of the international criminal justice in the light of the contemporary challenges and criticisms of the international criminal court;
Demonstrate knowledge of debates and jurisprudence developed around the elements of core international crimes which are under the jurisdiction of international criminal courts.
Be able to apply the substantive principles of international criminal law to analyse case studies on international criminal justice;
Understand the main modes of liability recognized for core crimes and be able to apply these to facts patterns.

Course plan:

Chapter 1: Course description and introduction

Chapter 2: What is International Criminal Law?

Chapter 3: History of international prosecutions: Nuremberg and Tokyo

Chapter 4: The ad hoc international criminal tribunals

Chapter 5: The ICC

Chapter 6: Genocide

Chapter 7: Crimes against humanity

Chapter 8: General principles of liability