The Law of Peace

This course will help to consolidate, supplement and enrich students’ understanding of international law, especially from the perspectives of international humanitarian law, international human rights law and international criminal law. The course will distill the motivations and crucial elements of the Treaty of Westphalia, which is generally credited with the foundation of international law as we know it. From that perspective, the course review the trajectory of international law through its various stages of formative turbulence right up to the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 as well as the Declaration on the Right to Peace in 2016. The course will also examine the practical ways in which peace can be enhanced as a juristic value, in hopes of deterring wars of aggression of the future.