Dr Stephen Humphreys, NAB6.04

For LLM students, MSc Criminal Justice Policy and MSc Human Rights.

The course is about the practice, theory and doctrine of international criminal law. It assumes a basic knowledge of principles of public international law, especially those relating to state responsibility, jurisdiction, and the relationship between international and domestic legal systems. The focus of the course is the area of international criminal law concerned with traditional “war crimes” and, in particular, the four core crimes set out in the Rome Statute (war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and aggression). It adopts a historical, theoretical and practical focus throughout. The course is mainly directed at the conceptual problems associated with the prosecution of war criminals and, more broadly, legalised retribution. There is relatively little focus on the procedural or technical issues associated with prosecution (e.g. in The Hague) though these matters may be taken up by qualified experts in tutorial.

Michaelmas Term:  Introduction and Concepts; the Origins of International Criminal Law (Nuremberg and Tokyo); Transitional Justice; Municipal Trials; Public and Private Responsibility; War Crimes; Crimes Against Humanity; Genocide; Terrorism; Torture.

Lent Term: Immunities; Defences; Ad hoc Tribunals; The International Criminal Court; Hybrid Tribunals;Hybrid Tribunals; Law, War and Crime I (Simpson); Jurisdiction (Simpson); Agression (Simpson); Piracy (Simpson); Law, War and Crime II (Simpson).

Seminars (LL445). Ten MT; Ten LT.
Tutorials Three MT; Three LT

Cryer, Friman, Robinson & Wilmshurst, An Introduction to International Criminal Law and Procedure (Cambridge, 2007).

Antonio Cassese, International Criminal Law, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 2008).

Gary Bass, Stay the Hand of Vengeance. The Politics of War Crimes Tribunals (Princeton, 2000); Judith Shklar, Legalism (Harvard, 1964); Mark Osiel, Mass Atrocity, Collective Memory & the Law (Transaction Publishers, 1997); T McCormack & G Simpson, The Law of War Crimes (Kluwer 1997); G. Simpson, Law, War and Crime (Polity 2007); W Schabas, The International Criminal Court (Cambridge, 2001); H Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem (Penguin, 1997).

Three-hour written examination.