Foreign & International Blog

Our very own Zachary D. Kaufman, YLS JD Candidate '09, will be giving a book talk this Friday, April 17, 2009, at 4:00pm, in the Law Library's L3 Periodical Reading Room.  Zach, an Olin Fellow and editor-in-chief of the Yale Law & Policy Review edited After Genocide: Transitional Justice, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, and Reconciliation in Rwanda and Beyond with Philip Clark, research fellow at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of
Oxford, and co-founder of Oxford Transitional Justice Research.

In After Genocide, published by Columbia University Press, ". . . leading scholars and practitioners analyze the political, legal, and
regional impact of events in post-genocide Rwanda within the broader
themes of transitional justice, reconstruction, and reconciliation."

The book includes ". . . chapters from Rwandan academics and practitioners, such as
Tom Ndahiro, Solomon Nsabiyera Gasana, and Jean Baptiste Kayigamba—all
of whom are also survivors of the 1994 genocide—and draws on their
personal experiences. After Genocide constitutes the most comprehensive survey to date of issues related to post-genocide Rwanda and transitional justice."  Read a more complete description of the book.

After Genocide is not on our shelves yet, but it will be very soon!

On a related note, to start researching the domestic law of Rwanda, begin with our Country-by-Country guide.  A nice portal to Rwandan legislation is Lexadin's World Law Guide.  Also, a simple Morris "Call Number" search for Rwanda -- KTD --will return a list of titles that have been assigned to Rwandan law.  Other human rights materials related to Rwanda are found elsewhere in the library collection.  A Morris Subject Heading" search, human rights rwanda, will return more resources cataloged primarily under human rights rather than strictly Rwandan law.

The Law Library is testing Westlaw China, a new database with primary and secondary sources on China laws:

http://www.westlawchina.com/login.php

The trial user ID and password can be found in YLS Inside Research Sites under Library Database Passwords. 

The Frederick K. Cox International Law Center at Case Western Reserve law school has developed an exiting new War Crimes Research Portal.  The portal has four features:

1. the portal contains over a thousand links to websites related to international humanitarian law, arranged alphabetically by subject area and including a summary of the content of each site;
2. the portal contains the text of over 120 research memoranda on issues pending before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the Special Court for Sierra Leone, and the International Criminal Court.  The memos can be searched by date published, title, or keywords. (Cites to the memos should take the following form: [Author’s name], [Title of Memo], Research Memorandum Prepared for the Office of the Prosecutor of the [Name of Tribunal], [Date].); 
3. there is a Research Guide to international humanitarian law and tribunals, prepared by the Case Law School Law Library, which includes a bibliography of relevant articles and books, as well as links to international law journals on the Web;
4. the portal contains "instant analysis" articles, written each month by the members of the American Branch of the International Association of Penal Law, on the hottest topics in international criminal law.

Frederick K. Cox International Law Center also has webcasts available of recent events:

• War Crimes Research Symposium: The International Criminal Court and the Crime of Aggression
  Speakers: M. Cherif Bassiouni, Mark Ellis, Don Ferencz, William Schabas and many more
  http://law.case.edu/lectures/webcast.asp?dt=20080926
• Klatsky Seminar in Human Rights: The Future of Human Rights
  Speaker Information: Geoffrey Robertson, Queen's Counsel, formerly of the SCSL
  http://law.case.edu/lectures/webcast.asp?dt=20081106

When searching for books on war crimes and humanitarian law in Morris, try searching by the following Subject Headings:

• war crime trials
• war (international law)
• guerillas (international law)

The International Video Law Library is a fantastic place to find, listen to, and watch leading experts in the field discuss substantive international law issues.  Also within the International Video Law Library is the Human Rights Video Library.

Some of the lectures in the library include:

• Thomas Buergenthal, Judge at the International Court of Justice, speaks about reservations to treaties.

• Philippe Kirsch, President of the International Criminal Court,  for an

  interview in September 2005 in which he introduced himself, and went on

  to give the historical background of the creation of the International Criminal Court.  President Kirsch then when on to explain how the Court functions, its structure, and finally gave a status report of the Court's activites as of 2005.

• James Crawford , Whewell Professor of International Law, University of Cambridge, considers his time at the UN International Law Commission as part of the Working Group on an International Criminal Court and the drafting of the 1994 Draft Statute for an International Criminal Court. The

  1994 ILC Draft was source of the drafting process which ultimately lead

  to the 1998 Rome Diplomatic Conference and the creation of the

  International Criminal Court.

• Judge Navanethem Pillay,

  President of the International Criminal for Rwanda Tribunal (1999 -

  2003) and later Judge of the International Criminal Court introduces

  herself and explains why the Rwanda Tribunal was established.  Judge Pillay speaks about the legacy which the ICTR will leave in respect to the

  evolution of international jursiprudence, and discusses the means by which the ICTR will finish its work. 

• Christine Chinkin, Professor of

  International Law at the London School of Economics and Political

  Science (LSE), discusses the feminist approach to international law.

There are many more.  Enjoy!

Of course the Yale Law Library has a fantastic print and electronic international law library.  For a list of our electronic international law resources, go to our webpage of Foreign, International and Transnational Law Resources.  Our international law reference books, treatises, looseleafs, and monographs are in the compact and open shelving areas and reading room on L1 as well as the Upper East Side.  The librarians are more than happy to assist you with your international legal research!