Legal Aspects of War: Humanitarian Law

Catalog No.: 204

Course Description:

Examines the legalities of the decision to go to war under international and U.S. law, the International Law of War, and human rights law. Coverage includes the War Powers Resolution and litigation regarding U.S. use of force in Vietnam, Central America, and the Persian Gulf; Nuremberg and other post-World War II legal prosecutions and postwar Geneva Conventions and Protocols; the legal responses to such issues as the capture of Adolf Eichmann and the My Lai massacre, the bombing of North Vietnam (1964- 72) and Iraq (1991), and the genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia; and the foundational texts of human rights law, particularly those relating to war and its consequences.