Law - Holocaust and Crimes Against Humanity Studies Emphasis

The Holocaust was the pivotal cause of the transformation of international law from a law of states that excluded individuals as subjects, to a system that henceforth included individuals as subjects.  Among the post-war documents it spawned are the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights.  Drenched not just in blood but also in law, or the mimicry of law, the Holocaust also was the epitome of the interdisciplinary event that cannot be studied effectively from a single field.  Conversely, modern international law cannot be understood without an understanding of the Holocaust.

From the Nuremberg trials to the trials of accused concentration camp guards currently taking place, to civil restitution lawsuits, to narratives of memory and the emerging scholarship on collective and cultural memory, the Holocaust poses a critical backdrop for comparison and contrast with subsequent mass crimes throughout the world, and the social, legal and political resolutions that follow in their wake.  Issues meriting study include the appropriate role of law; the limits of both law and justice in the aftermath of crimes against humanity; law’s intersection with history; historical justice; individual, collective and cultural memory; and narrative.

This emphasis will allow law students to examine these issues in any appropriate discipline, including but not limited to Law, Political Science, History, Jewish Studies and Literature.  Courses dealing with subjects such as international human rights; slavery; the Rwandan genocide and the history of the Holocaust are examples of those which would qualify.