Suspended in 2025/26
LL4AS Half Unit
International Criminal Law: Prosecution and Practice
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Dr Devika Hovell
Availability
This course is available on the LLM (extended part-time), LLM (full-time), MSc in Human Rights, MSc in Law and Finance and University of Pennsylvania Law School LLM Visiting Students. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process.
How to apply: Priority will be given initially to LLM, MSc Regulation and MSc Law and Finance students on a first-come-first-served allocation.
Spaces permitting, requests from all other students will be processed on the same first-come-first-served allocation from 10am on Thursday 2 October 2025
By submitting an application, students are confirming that they meet any pre-requisites specified. Providing an additional written statement will not aid a student's chances of being accepted onto a course, and statements are not read.
Deadline for application: Not applicable
For queries contact: Law.llm@lse.ac.uk
This course has a limited number of places and demand is typically high. This may mean that you’re not able to get a place on this course.
Course content
The ‘justice cascade’ of international criminal prosecutions may have started as a trickle but is generating momentum. The last few decades have witnessed the establishment of a steady stream of tribunals exercising international criminal jurisdiction, including ad hocs, hybrids, specialist courts and of course the permanent International Criminal Court. In more recent years, there has been a surge in the domestic prosecution of international crimes through the mechanism of universal jurisdiction. This bricolage of international criminal prosecutions is appropriately recognised as an emerging (decentralised) international criminal justice system. In the first half of the course, we will examine the different fora available for the prosecution of international crimes. The second half of the course will focus on the practice and procedure of the International Criminal Court through the lens of the different actors engaged: the judges, the Office of the Prosecutor, the accused, defence counsel, victims and states. The course takes practical, theoretical and critical approaches to issues such as jurisdiction, complementarity, selectivity, modes of liability, defences, victim participation and immunity.
Teaching
2 hours of seminars in the Spring Term.
20 hours of seminars in the Winter Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.
Formative assessment
One 1500 word essay.
Indicative reading
Reading lists will be provided for each week’s seminar on Moodle. Indicative reading includes Jose Alvarez, ‘Crimes of States/Crimes of Hate: Lessons from Rwanda’ (1999) 24 Yale Journal of International Law 365; Henry Kissinger, ‘The Pitfalls of Universal Jurisdiction’, Foreign Affairs (July 2001); Darryl Robinson, ‘Inescapable Dyads: Why the International Criminal Court Cannot Win’ (2015) 28 Leiden Journal of International Law 323; Sara Kendall and Sarah Nouwen, 'Representational Practices: The Gap Between Juridified and Abstract Victimhood' (2013) 76(3) Law and Contemporary Problems 235. Students may wish to refer to Robert Cryer et al., An Introduction to International Criminal Law and Procedure (Cambridge, 2019), 4th edition.
Assessment
Exam (100%), duration: 150 Minutes in the Spring exam period
Key facts
Department: LSE Law School
Course Study Period: Winter and Spring Term
Unit value: Half unit
FHEQ Level: Level 7
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: 25
Average class size 2024/25: 25
Controlled access 2024/25: YesCourse selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.
For this course, please see the following link/s:
LL4AS International Criminal Law: Prosecution and Practice Course Guide Video https://youtu.be/JGnHsDr9Y5s
Personal development skills
- Communication
- Specialist skills