Prerequisites: None

Exam Type: Any-Day Take-Home

This course explores the origins of modern international criminal law and looks at their impact on current directions, including on immunities and impunities. It starts with the trial of Nazi leaders at the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg – with a particular focus on ‘genocide’ (protection of groups) and ‘crimes against humanity’ (protection of individuals) – and moves on to explore the impact in the 1990’s, when the international criminal law project was “re-born” with the creation of the ad-hoc international criminal tribunals, the International Criminal Court, and proceedings against former Chilean head of state Augusto Pinochet in London .

The course examines how law is created, interpreted and represented, and shapes our understanding of events over time and among different communities, and through different disciplines and mediums. Using Professor Sands’ books East West Street (2016) and 38 Londres Street (2025) as core texts, we will consider the role of individuals and how the Nuremberg precedent has been represented in law, history, literature, and film over the decades; how it has come to have different meanings at different times and in different places in the world; and how it has shaped subsequent developments, from the Yugoslav and Rwanda Tribunals, to the International Criminal Court, and proceedings in domestic courts, such as Pinochet.

The course will thus be a study of law itself, how it operates in the world, and of the origins of international criminal law.

Note: This course will meet for 12 sessions.