This advanced seminar examines the evolving relationship between the United States and international criminal tribunals. The course explores how the U.S. has helped design, support, resist, and shape institutions such as the Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals, the ad hoc tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, hybrid courts, and the International Criminal Court. Students analyze how domestic constitutional constraints, executive power, congressional legislation, and geopolitical strategy influence U.S. engagement with international criminal justice.
The seminar emphasizes the tension between global accountability and national sovereignty. Through case studies, students examine cooperation agreements, jurisdiction disputes, funding controversies, arrest politics, and the strategic use of international criminal law as a foreign policy instrument. The course treats international criminal tribunals not only as legal institutions but as arenas of power, legitimacy, and diplomacy.
This course assumes prior study of public international law or international criminal law.
Course Objectives
By the end of the course, students should be able to:
1. Explain the structure of major international criminal tribunals.
2. Analyze U.S. legal authority to support or resist tribunals.
3. Interpret statutory and constitutional constraints.
4. Evaluate jurisdictional disputes involving U.S. nationals.
5. Assess political and diplomatic consequences of cooperation.
6. Understand complementarity and universal jurisdiction debates.
7. Analyze case studies of tribunal engagement.
8. Evaluate legitimacy and accountability critiques.
9. Apply doctrine to contemporary disputes.
10. Develop sophisticated legal-policy arguments.
