The Evolution of International Criminal Law

Identify three pivotal moments in international criminal law: the Nuremberg judgment and charter, the ICTY and ICTR ad hoc tribunals, and the Rome Statute establishing the ICC.

Trace the evolution of war law from the 1856 declaration of Paris and privateering debates to the 1864 Geneva Conventions, 1868 Saint Petersburg Declaration, and Hague era reforms.

Examine postwar reactions to war crimes, the Leipzig trials, and the birth of modern international criminal law, highlighting the Martens Clause, ius gentium, and calls for an International Criminal Court.

Trace the interwar efforts to outlaw aggressive war, arbitration as dispute resolution, Locarno and Kellogg-Briand pacts, Pan-American declarations, and early international criminal law development.

Trace the origins of international criminal law during World War II, focusing on the London Agreement and the Nuremberg Tribunal, defining crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

Sanctioning wartime conduct, the Tokyo international military tribunal operated from 1946 to 1948 under a MacArthur decree, trying 28 individuals, including Indian and Dutch judges, shaping international criminal law.

Explore how the International Law Commission advanced international criminal law during the Cold War, codifying Nuremberg principles and defining crimes such as genocide and aggression.

Explore post-cold war shifts that spurred ad hoc tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda and the creation of the International Criminal Court, highlighting primacy, complementarity, and key cases.

Established by the Rome Statute in 1998, the International Criminal Court sits at The Hague and prosecutes genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and aggression, with complementarity to national courts.

Explore genocide under the Rome Statute as acts with intent to destroy a protected group, including killing, serious harm, destroying living conditions, birth prevention, and forcible transfer of children.

Identify how crimes against humanity differ from genocide and trace their evolution from the Hague Convention to the Rome Statute, including murder, torture, rape, persecution, and enforced disappearance.

Define war crimes as grave violations of the laws or customs of war, including murder, ill treatment, deportation to slave labour, plunder, and wanton destruction.

Explore the crime of aggression under the Rome Statute, including invasion, bombardment, blockades, and other armed actions violating the UN Charter.

Explain why the United States did not ratify the international criminal court's Rome Statute, citing sovereignty, jurisdiction, and concerns about an independent prosecutor.

Explore the evolution and current effectiveness of international criminal law, from jus gentium and piracy under universal jurisdiction to Aquinas's just war and ICC challenges.

Explore Eichmann's trial through the banality of evil and Roxin's control theory, showing how ordinary officials become indirect perpetrators within organized power in international criminal law.

Examines the doctrine of double effect to assess atomic bombings and 9/11 through jus in bello, highlighting proportionality, discrimination, and civilian casualty limits.

Distinguish criminal law in space from international criminal law, explain territoriality and protective principles, Rome Statute origins, and extradition challenges in prosecuting abroad.