* 50% reduction reserved for: Employees of public bodies; Members of the judiciary, lawyers, trainee lawyers, and legal professionals; Members of law enforcement agencies and the armed forces; Officials and staff of international organisations and non-governmental organisations; Professionals and practitioners active in the field of human rights, transitional justice, and international humanitarian law; University lecturers and researchers.
Overview
The Advanced Course in International Criminal Law stems from the conviction that the most serious crimes affecting the international community — genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and aggression — cannot go unpunished, and that understanding their legal regime is today part of the essential toolkit of the jurist.
The programme adopts an academic and doctrinal orientation, faithful to the framework of the leading textbooks: the reconstruction of positive law is constantly accompanied by an examination of the critical, political, and moral questions the subject raises.
Across six modules, students are guided from the foundations of the discipline through to procedure and punishment, by way of the jurisdiction of national courts, the international tribunals, and the substantive law of international crimes.
Particular attention is devoted to substantive law — genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and aggression — as well as to the general principles of liability and the grounds excluding criminal responsibility.
The approach is rigorous and grounded in primary sources: the Rome Statute, the statutes of the ad hoc tribunals, and the case law of the leading cases (Tadić, Akayesu, Lubanga).
At the same time, the intellectual curiosity required to engage with a subject in which law, history, and international politics are inevitably intertwined is fostered.
Studying international criminal law means questioning the aims of punishment, the limits of criminal justice as a response to mass atrocities, and the difficult relationship between State sovereignty and international jurisdiction.
It is in this spirit that a training programme is offered, designed for those who wish to understand international criminal law in its substantive, procedural, and institutional dimensions.
Teaching is delivered entirely online: the Institute's Moodle platform allows lessons to be followed anywhere and at any time.
The Advanced Course in International Criminal Law is structured into Six Modules:
1. Foundations
What international criminal law is, how it relates to neighbouring disciplines, and what aims, objectives, and justifications guide its application.
2. Enforcement before national jurisdictions
Heads of jurisdiction, including universal jurisdiction, the prosecution of international crimes by national courts, and mechanisms of cooperation between States in domestic proceedings.
3. International criminal justice
From the history of the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials to the ad hoc international criminal tribunals, the International Criminal Court, and other hybrid and special tribunals.
4. The substantive law of international crimes
Definitions, constituent elements, and contested questions of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and aggression; other international crimes (terrorism, torture, ecocide); general principles of liability and grounds excluding criminal responsibility.
5. International criminal procedure and sentencing
The conduct of international criminal proceedings, the role of victims in international criminal justice, and the principles governing punishment and the determination of sentence.
6. The relationship between national and international systems
Cooperation of States with international courts and tribunals, immunities, and alternatives and complements to criminal prosecution.
At the end of the Course, UNINTESS issues to enrolled participants assessed as suitable, following the passing of the prescribed assessment examination, a Diploma formally certifying the attainment of a high level of knowledge of the topics covered in the programme.
- Assessment: a single final test in multiple-choice form, passed with the minimum score of 18/30.
- Admission requirements: a degree (former system, specialist, or three-year), a secondary school diploma, or an equivalent foreign qualification; particular circumstances are assessed by the Course Management.
- Timing: the examination may be taken after completing all the lessons and the end-of-module self-assessments, and within the 12th month from enrolment.
- CFU: the Diploma does not entail the award of University Credits (CFU) by UNINTESS.
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