Symposium: Perspectives on International Criminal Justice

The Centre Thucydide at the University of Paris II (Panthéon-Assas) and The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, with the support of the American Society of International Law and the French Consulate, will host a two-day international symposium on current and future challenges facing the administration of international criminal justice, November 14-15, 2008, at the Fletcher School. The program is here. Why attend?

The evolution of international criminal justice and, in particular, its institutionalization, has not been without controversy and dissent. Six years after the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court entered into force, there is considerable debate over the efficacy of international criminal justice and the ICC, once described as the ‘most important advance in international law since the establishment of the UN’. Are International Criminal Tribunals key factors in restoring peace and justice in conflict zones by contributing to the fight against impunity and the reign of ‘judicial deterrence’? How should we appreciate the transatlantic position regarding these institutions? Are the United States and the European Union still in disagreement over the role of the ICC? What is the current status of international criminal justice? The goal [of the symposium] is to foster fruitful and multidisciplinary debate among prominent specialists in the field, thus contributing to an assessment of international criminal justice and to the global debates surrounding it.