LIBRARY
POL 428: International Law & Organizations: International Tribunals and Crimes Against Humanity
Dr Marco Rimanelli
This LibGuide is based on a PowerPoint presentation by Dr Marco Rimanelli, Professor of Political Science and International Relations [May 7, 2012, Social Justice Across the Curriculum]
Legal Scholarly Roots
Hugo Grotius (1583-1645), known as the “father of international law." His major work On the Law of War and Peace was published in Paris in 1625.
Gotius believed:
All international relations are subject to the rule of law.
States are rational and law abiding.
States are capable of achieving cooperative goals.
Functions of International Law
•Determines globally permissible and non-permissible behavior among states, international organizations & insurgents
Sources of International Law
- EISIL: Electronic Information System for International Law --© 2010 American Society of International Law
Cambridge University Press; Oxford University Press; Martinus Nijhoff, Publishers
Customs (based on laws some of which are 3000 years old)
Once a practice becomes a custom, all states in the international community are bound by it whether or not individual states have expressly consented ... [Britannica Online Academic ed.]
Treaties (95% of international law)
"A treaty is an express agreement under international law entered into by actors in international law, namely sovereign states and international organizations." [Wikipedia]
General Principles of Law as recognized by civilized nations. Prohibitions against genocide, slavery, and piracy and the outlawing of aggression are 3 Principles that have compelling Universal Criminal Jurisdiction. [Links to Britannica Online Academic ed.]
Legal Scholarship (from the 1500s to the International Criminal Court at The Hague). See The Avalon Project at Yale Law School. Links to documents from 4000bce to 2000+
A comprehensive guide, the EISIL Website has multiple links to basic sources, historical materials and other important documents. Provided by the American Society of International Law, this site is "an open database of authenticated primary and other materials across the breadth of international law, which until now have been scattered in libraries, archives and specialized web sites." The user may browse from a list of 13 subjects and hundreds of subtopics or search by category or keyword.
e-Books
- Resolving international conflicts by
Stopping wars and making peace: studies in international intervention by "Stopping a war is a useful, if not indispensable, step toward making peace, but it does not lead ineluctably to peace, nor does the international community’s interposition of “peacekeepers”; their title notwithstanding, peacekeepers only try to keep a stopped war stopped."
Internet Sources
- Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy / Yale Law SchoolDocument collections from 4000BCE to 2000+
- Core International Human Rights TreatiesThere are seven human rights treaty bodies that monitor implementation of the core international human rights treaties.
- EISIL: Electronic Information System for International Law© 2010 American Society of International Law
- NYU Law Research Guide on International TreatiesDated 2010
- A Short History of International Law / by Stephen C. Neff"This history will emphasize broad trends in international law, in both the conceptual sphere and in State practice. The discussion will move chronologically, beginning with a cursory look at the ancient world..." [Introduction]
e-Books
- Saving strangers: humanitarian intervention in international society byISBN: 0585356750Publication Date: Oxford University Press, 2000
