What's New

Spring 2012, PolS 393, World Affairs
Instructor: Professor Jonathan Graubart, Ph.D. in Political Science and JD in Law.

International Law and Global Justice: Friends, Acquaintances, or Enemies?

May 7, 2012

Richard Goldstone, "The Current State of International Criminal Law"

Judge Goldstone has a highly regarded record in national and global public service. In South Africa, he was a justice on the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court and headed the Goldstone Commission, which investigated political violence in South Africa from 1991 through 1994. With Nelson Mandela’s endorsement, Judge Goldstone was selected by the UN Security Council to be the Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal of the former Yugoslavia. This mandate then extended to the parallel tribunal for Rwanda. He has also chaired prominent, UN-sponsored fact-finding commissions concerning the NATO offensive on Serbia-Kosovo in 1999 and the Israeli offensive on the Gaza in 2008-2009. Judge Goldstone received the International Rights Award of the American Bar Association in 1994, the Thomas J. Dodd Prize in International Rights in 2005, and the MacArthur Award for International Justice in 2009. 

 Judge Goldstone is presently a professor of law, teaching this semester at Yale Law School. Please note that Judge Goldstone will not be discussing the Israeli-Gaza conflict of 2008-2009. Rather, the focus will be on international criminal tribunals.

>>View the 5/7 flyer (.pdf)

The aim of this course is to provide a comprehensive, critical perspective on major developments in international law, as they relate to global justice. To do so, we will familiarize ourselves with fundamental concepts of international law, major historical developments in international human rights (e.g., UN Declaration on Human Rights, the Geneva Conventions, International Tribunals, the post-Cold War emergence of supposedly humanitarian interventions), and competing international relations perspectives on global justice. In addition to lectures and class discussions led by the professor, the course will feature a series of prominent outside speakers, listed below. These events are free and open to the public. All will be held at the Little Theater, 161, 5-6:40:

• Feb. 13: Pierre-Richard Prosper has had a distinguished diplomatic career. From 2001 through 2005, he served as US Ambassador at Large, in charge of the State Department’s Office of War Crimes Issues. From 1999 to 2001, Ambassador Prosper was special counsel and policy adviser on War Crimes Issues at the State Department. From 1996 to 1998, he was a prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. There, he was lead trial attorney for the Akayesu case, the first-ever case of genocide under the Genocide Convention. Ambassador Prosper remains engaged in matters of public interest. In April 2008, he was appointed by President Bush to be a member of the US Holocaust Memorial Council. In January 2008, he was elected by the United Nations General Assembly to serve as an independent expert to a human rights treaty body, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, in Geneva, Switzerland, which monitors compliance by State parties to the Convention.

  Ambassador Prosper is presently a partner at the international law firm, Arent Fox. His practice centers on international government relations and trade, mediation and internal assessments and investigations on behalf of government entities and companies.
  

• CANCELLED Mar. 12: Consul General David Siegel has served in many distinguished positions. He began as Deputy Chief of Mission at Israel’s Embassy in Eritrea and later rose to Charge’ d’Affaires. He subsequently held the positions of Spokesperson, Counselor for Congressional Affairs, and Chief of Staff for three Israeli Ambassadors to the United States. Consul General Siegel has also been a liaison to the White House Press Corps, with a focus on homeland security, missile defense and security cooperation. He participated in the Wye River Peace Summit in 1998, the Israel Syria negotiations in 1999, and the 2000 Camp David Summit. 

  Mr. Siegel is presently Israel’s Consulate General in Los Angeles, responsible for the greater Southwestern United States. 
  

• Mar. 19: Noura Erakat is an internationally recognized human rights attorney and activist. She was Legal Counsel for the Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives and a foreign policy advisor to House Representative Dennis Kucinich. Ms. Erakat helped initiate both the Arab Women Arising for Justice (AMWAJ) and the Palestinian Popular Conference. She is a frequent contributor to prominent media outlets, including “The O’Reilly Factor,” “Democracy Now,” and Al-Jazeera Arabic and English. 

  Professor Erakat is presently an adjunct professor of international human rights law and the Middle East at Georgetown University and the U.S.-based Legal Advocacy Coordinator at the Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Refugee and Residency Rights.
  

• Apr. 2: Balakrishnan Rajagopal has held distinguished positions in the fields of human rights and international law. He was United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Cambodia and has consulted for several UN agencies and NGOs on international human rights and other legal issues. Dr. Rajagopal has been a fellow or visiting professor at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, the Madras Institute for Advanced Studies in Jerusalem, the Washington College of Law, Melbourne Law School, and the UN University for Peace. In addition to multiple articles, he has authored International Law from Below: Development, Social Movements and Third World Resistance, and Reshaping Justice: International Law and the Third World.

  Professor Rajagopal is presently professor of international law and Director of the MIT Program on Human Rights & Justice at the Center for International Studies. He holds advisory or executive positions at the American Society of International Law, the International Advisory Committee of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, and the International Rights Advocates. 
  

• Apr. 16: Ramesh Thakur was the Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1998 to 2007, while simultaneously holding the position of Senior Vice Rector of the United Nations University. Dr. Thakur has served on several high-level global policy panels, including the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty. The latter produced the well known “Responsibility to Protect” doctrine of which Dr. Thakur was one of the three principle co-authors. Dr. Thakur has authored over thirty books, including the prize-winning 2008 publication, War in Our Time: Reflections on Iraq, Terrorism and Weapons of Mass Destruction.
   
  Dr. Thakur is presently a professor of international relations and Director of the Centre for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament at Australia National University.
  
  

• Apr. 30: Elise Keppler has worked for Human Rights Watch since 2003. Her focus has been on international criminal justice, with an emphasis on Africa. She has written briefing papers for the U.S. Congress and for the Obama Administration. Ms. Keppler was a prominent advocate in getting the international tribunal in Sierra Leone to indict former Liberian president Charles Taylor and in getting the International Criminal Court to investigate the atrocities in Darfur, Sudan. 

  Ms. Keppler is presently Senior Counsel with the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch.
  

• May 7: Richard Goldstonehas a highly regarded record in national and global public service. In South Africa, he was a justice on the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court and headed the Goldstone Commission, which investigated political violence in South Africa from 1991 through 1994. With Nelson Mandela’s endorsement, Judge Goldstone was selected by the UN Security Council to be the Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal of the former Yugoslavia. This mandate then extended to the parallel tribunal for Rwanda. He has also chaired prominent, UN-sponsored fact-finding commissions concerning the NATO offensive on Serbia-Kosovo in 1999 and the Israeli offensive on the Gaza in 2008-2009. Judge Goldstone received the International Rights Award of the American Bar Association in 1994, the Thomas J. Dodd Prize in International Rights in 2005, and the MacArthur Award for International Justice in 2009. 

  Judge Goldstone is presently a professor of law, teaching this semester at Yale Law School.

"Law and justice are distant cousins, and here in South Africa they're not on speaking terms at all."
Marlon Brando in A Dry White Season