This course seeks to introduce students to the most recent developments and contemporary debates in the fields of peace building and transitional justice. It will provide the conceptual framework to understand the dynamics, institutions and actors involved in such settings. More particularly, the course will provide insights on the key mechanisms within the transitional justice framework, namely: criminal accountability, truth-seeking, reparations, and measures of non-recurrence or institutional reform. All these dimensions will be contextualized by concrete examples of transitional justice and peace building scenarios, such as South Africa, Colombia, Guatemala, Syria. The course will include a negotiation exercise where students can put in practice and test what they have learned. After this course, students are able to understand the tensions inherent in transitional justice processes and to conduct independent legal and factual research in order to critically assess the measures adopted in a given situation. They will be able to evaluate the efficacy or prospects of those measures by drawing on the notions acquired during the course, including by contrasting and comparing them with analogous transitional processes in different contexts.
Disclaimer: This course has been updated to the best of our knowledge at the current time of publishing. Due to the Covid 19 pandemic and the fluctuating changes in lock down regulations all information contained within this course description are subject to change up to 1 September 2020.
Due to the uncertainty of the Covid 19 virus after 1 September 2020, changes to the course description can only be made in the event of strict necessity and only in the circumstances where the interests of the students are not impinged. Should there be a need for any change during the duration of the course, this will be informed to all students on a timely basis and will not be to the prejudice of students. Modifications after 1 September 2020 may only be done with the approval and consent of the Faculty Board.