POLT 323 - Responding to Atrocity

FC SSCI

4 credits
The last century has witnessed incredible progress in the codification of international criminal law, and in the creation of global institutions for adjudicating and prosecuting war crimes. This same period, however, has also tested the limits of these laws and institutions, and of the political will that lies at their foundation. The course charts this jagged progress: from the law’s triumph to its limits in preventing and responding to atrocity. Students will learn about how laws and legal institutions developed, how these efforts reflected and pushed against global power politics, where the law reined in atrocities, and where it failed.

Prerequisites: POLT 120.