Foundations of International Criminal Justice

This module provides a critical introduction to the conceptual, theoretical and methodological foundations of the emerging new discipline of International Criminal Justice (ICrimJ). It adopts a contextual approach, placing legal norms, institutions and processes in their broader political, historical, sociological and ethical contexts, reflecting the range and institutional diversity of contemporary developments in international criminal justice, broadly conceived.

The module can be viewed as an extended meditation on the foundational theoretical and methodological questions:

• what is ICrimJ?
• how can we study it?
• what is it for?
• which values does it promote and reflect?
• what, if anything, can it achieve?
• what obstacles lie in the path of achieving its objectives?
• how successful has it been to-date?
• what are its future prospects?

This module complements companion LLM options which examine more systematically the conduct of international criminal proceedings (International Criminal Law: Institutions) and the doctrinal rules of International Criminal Law (International Criminal Law: Substantive Law and Process).

As an advanced-level introduction to ICrimJ, this option will seek to bring theoretical coherence to an otherwise disparate array of apparently diverse and disjointed legal and political developments. It is designed to be a coherent ‘stand-alone’ option, and also to provide a methodologically rigorous context for more detailed studies of international criminal law and process.

The overall objective of the module is to foster an appreciation of the meaning and importance of ‘International Criminal Justice’, both for legal theory and for the development and protection of justice and human rights in the international legal order.