CSPO 21A01 - Seeking Justice : A Transnational History of War Crime Trials

This course aims to investigate the ties between resorting to criminal justice and the making of postwar orders.

More specifically, the purpose of the course is to address three sets of issues. Firstly, how can one account for the evolving conceptions of the role of justice in the management of postwar settlements and regime transitions? Secondly, how can one shed light on the ways in which justice has been served – and been seen to be served - since the end of World War II? Issues of proof, witnessing, expertise and the media coverage of legal procedures are of prime importance here. Thirdly, how have international and domestic trials of war criminals impacted the ways in which large scale violence is told by historians and remembered by victims and outsiders? To address these questions, this course will provide a vision of justice attentive to the various protagonists that have contributed to its shaping, both within the judicial arena (prosecutors, judges, lawyers, witnesses, as well as translators or stenographers, etc.) and beyond it (journalists, diplomats, political decision-makers, as well as historians, teachers, etc.). The students will also be invited to enter the courtrooms, and consider them as a stage whose rules, roles and rituals need to be investigated. They will also be invited to impersonate several key protagonists of specific trials, and experience the dynamics of interrogatories, witnessing, and the making of judgment. The course will build upon a diversity of oral, print and visual sources, including filmed trials and archival documents.