Face-to-face , first term, 60 hours of theory.

First term
Monday from 13:30 to 15:30 at 43 Botanique 1
Wednesday from 10:45 to 12:45 at 109 Marais 301
Wednesday from 10:45 to 12:45 at 109 Marais 300
Wednesday from 10:45 to 12:45 at 43 Botanique 1

English

The course aims to critically think about the laws that regulate our lives today as (inter)national citizens. It does so by looking into the complex historical processes of law-making. You will learn to analyse:

- The principal shifts in the legal orders of the 19th and 20th centuries;
- Fundamental concepts (such as codification, human rights, citizenship, equality, transitional justice, civil rights, suffrage) in their historical context;
- Interactions between socio-political and legal dynamics;
- The actors of legal change;
- The structure of international society;
- The construction of the laws of war;
- The developments and challenges of international justice.

Course materials include powerpoint slides and required texts and sources. They are available on moodle and in printed form.

For the Bachelor in Law :

None

This course examines legal change in Belgium in an increasingly globalised world since the 19th century. It presents and confronts different genealogies and approaches to the law from a comparative perspective. The course has three parts: (1) From subjects to citizens (2) From national to international codification, and (3) Justice after War and Genocide.
For each theme, it first presents founding legal texts in contemporary legal history. It then examines the social and political contexts of claims of rights. Finally, it addresses the causes and consequences of the transformation of legal institutions from a historical perspective.
The course puts particular emphasis on Europe, the United States and Africa during the 19th and the 20th centuries.

This is a lecture-based course with required readings.
Students will attend a half-day workshop on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda on 6 November 2019.
The course also includes an oral presentation (related to the workshop's topic) in groups of 6 students. The presentation follows the “Three Minute Thesis Competition” format (three minute talk and one slide/poster).
More details on the workshop and presentations will be given in class and will be available on Moodle.

The final grade will be based upon the following:
• A final written closed-book exam (January 2020, 90% of the final grade)
- Multiple-choice questions (4/20)
- Open questions (14/20)
• A group presentation with a poster (10% of the final grade, 2/20)

The following texts are required for the course. They will be discussed, explained and analysed during the course and are part of the final evaluation:

• Text 1 (week 1 and 2)
E. Hobsbawm, “The French Revolution”, in: The Age of Revolution. 1789-1848. Vintage books. 1996 (1st ed. 1962). p. 53-76.
• Text 2 (week 3)
D. G. Stephenson, “Race and Voting” and “Gender and Voting” in: The right to Vote. Rights and Liberties under the Law. ABC-Clio. 2004. p. 99 to137.
• Text 3 (week 4)
T. Bingham, “Some History”, in: The Rule of law. Penguin Books. 2010. p. 10-33.
• Text 4 (week 6 and 7)
M. Mazower, “The Strange Triumph of Human Rights, 1933-1950”. The historical journal. 2004. p. 379-398.
• Text 5 (week 10)
A. Kramer, “The First Wave of International War Crimes Trials: Istanbul and Leipzig”. European Review. 2006. p. 441-455.
• Text 6 (week 11)
R. Wittmann, “Pretrial history” in: Beyond Justice. The Auschwitz Trial. Harvard University Press. 2005. p. 15-53
• Text 7 (week 12)
V. Morris and M. Scharf, “The Limited Jurisdiction and the Applicable Law of the Rwanda Tribunal” in: The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Transnational publishers. 1998. p. 117-157.

You may download them directly from the Moodle platform or request them at the reprographie.

Additional helpful and supporting texts (not required for the exam):

• Burbank Jane and Cooper Frederick. “Empire, Nation, and Citizenship in a Revolutionary Age” in: Empires in world history: power and the politics of difference, Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press, 2010. (On Moodle)
• Halpérin, Jean-Louis. Histoire des droits en Europe de 1750 à nos jours, Flammarion, 2004. (at the University Library)
• Mazower, Marc. Le continent des ténèbres: une histoire de l'Europe au XXe siècle. Bruxelles; IHTP-CNRS: Éditions Complexe, 2005. (At the University Library, excerpts in English on Moodle)
• Mazower, Mark. Governing the World. The History of an Idea. Penguin Books. 2012. (at the University Library and excerpts on Moodle: The empire of law and humanity's law)
• Sands, Philippe. East West Street: On the Origins of “Genocide” and “Crimes against Humanity”. Vintage Books. 2016. (at the University Library)
• Segesser, Daniel Marc and Gessler, Myriam. “Raphael Lemkin and the international debate on the punishment of war crimes (1919-1948)”, Journal of Genocide Research, 2005, p. 453-468. (On Moodle)

Office hours on appointment by email.