International criminal law

The course aims at providing the students with a good knowledge of: (i) the general principles and substantive rules regarding individual criminal responsibility for crimes under international law - namely war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and aggression, and (ii) their enforcement mechanisms both at the national and at the international level. Special focus will be devoted to the foundations and the proceedings of the International Criminal Court.
While the first part of the course will be more aimed at providing the students with a good basic knowledge of the system of international criminal justice, in the second part, students will be more actively involved during the classes. In particular, students will be asked to present topics in form of case studies elaborated in teams; this activity will strengthen both the critical analysis skills of the students, in applying the theoretical notions acquired to real cases, and their capacity to work in group.

The course aims at providing students with the following competences:
· understanding the specific features of international criminal law in respect to other neighboring subjects;
· knowing the mechanisms and characteristic of international tribunals;
· interpreting and understanding legal provisions and case-law regarding international criminal justice;
· strengthening personal capacity to work in group and to present the proposed case studies;
· developing personal, independent and critical analysis on worldwide situations and cases involving international criminal responsibility.