SEMINAR ON CASE STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW
國際人道法案例專題討論

Class Number: A21 U2350
Class Schedule: Thursday 1:20pm-3:10pm（社法25）
Office Hour: Thursday 10am-12pm or by appointment

Instructor: Wen-Chen Chang (張文貞)
台大法律學院 徐州路21號 研究大樓420室
Tel: 2351-9641 ext. 509
Email: wenchenchang@ntu.edu.tw

教學助理：李思儀（台大法研所）
Email: sandra4318@yahoo.com.tw
Fall, 2005

I. Course Description

International humanitarian law has been recently revitalized as the result of intensified ethnical conflicts and global terrors in the end of the twentieth century. The development reached its peak as the Rome Statute of International Criminal Court went into force on July 1, 2000. A re-emerging discourse notwithstanding, international humanitarian law was a product of the two World Wars in the first half of the last century. As a matter of fact, it helped shape international human rights law and global human rights mechanisms after World War II. Not until in the 1990s when serious war crimes appeared in several transitional regimes such as former Yugoslavia or Rwanda did international humanitarian law reemerge in the field of public international law and international human rights law.

This course is designed to provide a background understanding of the development of international humanitarian law and to analyze basic and important documents and cases in the field. In a way, international humanitarian law is a set of legal concepts shared by international law, the law of war, criminal law, human rights, and perhaps even constitutional law. It should draw attentions from a wide spectrum of students. One of the purposes aimed by this seminar is to serve as a preparatory mechanism for students who are interested in participating in the Inter-University Competition for International Humanitarian Law Moots held by Red Cross for East and Southeast Asia. Thus, students in this seminar are expected to be highly motivated, capable in using English, and ready to work with the instructor to shape the agenda of the course with the approaching of inter-university competition. This course is divided into two parts: class discussion and moot exercise. Students will be graded according to their involvement in both sections.


II. Class Schedule
Week One: 9/22
Introduction

Week Two: 9/29
1. The origin of international humanitarian law

1.1 The Red Cross and the development of international humanitarian law
*Francois Bugnion, The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Development of International Humanitarian Law, 5 Chi. J. Int’l L. 191 (2004).

1.2. The early development of law of war and the humanitarian) law of war
*The Paquete Habana, 175 U.S. 677 (1900)
*STEINER & ALSTON, INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS IN CONTEXT: LAW, POLITICS, MORALS 59-71 (1996) (hereinafter HR)

Week Three: 10/6
1.3. The law of state responsibility
1.3.1. The concept of state responsibility and international standard regarding criminal procedure
*United States of America (B.E. Chattin) v. United Mexican States, 4 U.N.R.I.A.A. 282 (1927)
* HR, at 72-85

1.3.2. Issues concerning minority regime
*Minority Schools in Albania, Advisory opinion of Permanent Court of International Justice, 1935
*HR, at 86-98

1.3.3. Nuremberg Trial
*HR, at 99-116
*Charter of the United Nations

Weeks Four & Five: 10/13 & 10/20
2. The development of international criminal law and special tribunals

2.1 International crimes: Geneva Conventions & Eichmann trial
*HR, at 1021-1034
*HR, at 1034-1040
*The Geneva Conventions & Additional Protocols:
*1) Convention (I) for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field. Geneva, 12 August 1949.
*2) Convention (II) for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea. Geneva, 12 August 1949.
*3) Convention (III) relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949.
*4) Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949.
#5) Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), 8 June 1977.
#6) Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II), 8 June 1977.

Weeks Six, Seven & Eight: 10/27, 11/3 & 11/10
2.2. International Criminal Tribunals

2.2.1 The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
*Student presentation of situations of former Yugoslavia
*HR, at 1040-1050
*Statute of The International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, 1993 (HR, 1050-1057)
*Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, 1995 (HR, 1058-1063)
*Comments, HR, at 1063-1078

2.2.2 The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
*Student presentation of situations of Rwanda
*The Statue of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, 1994

2.2.3 The Special Court for Sierra Leone
*Student presentation of situations of Sierra Leone
*Statute of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, 2000

Week Nine: 11/17
2.3 The establishment of international criminal court
*HR, at 1079-1084
*Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, 1998, entering into force in 2002
* Elements of Crime (under the mandate of Article 9 of the Rome Statute)

Week Ten: 11/24
3. The reflection: punishment, amnesty, truth commissions
*HR, 1084-1109

Week Eleven: 12/1
Moot (I) preparation: discussion

Week Twelve: 12/8
Moot (I) preparation: discussion

Week Thirteen: 12/15
Moot (I) exercise

Week Fourteen: 12/22
Moot (II) preparation: discussion

Week Fifteen: 12/29
Moot (II) preparation: discussion

Week Sixteen: 1/5
Moot (II) exercise

Week Seventeen: 1/12 (final exam)
Conclusion