Historical Foundations Sample Clauses

Historical Foundations. (2 courses) Values and Ethics (one education program course)

Historical Foundations. The value of placing an idea within a specific historical context is at least twofold. First, knowing the environment in which a concept emerged helps understand the idea. Second, the fact that an idea crystalized and grew at a particular time allows reasonable inferences to be made about the wider international system at that time. For jus post bellum and Transitional Justice particularly, these are concepts with time and a dynamic view of events at their core. Their relatively recent emergence and popularity allows the inference that recent periods are more receptive to the idea of dynamic change. The emergence and development in content of these concepts should change how the international system is regarded, from a more static to a more dynamic entity. That dynamism, with inherent emphasis on change over time, means that time has become a more critical factor in understanding how the international system works. A comparative analysis of the historical foundations of Transitional Justice, jus post bellum, and International Criminal Law demonstrates the particularities of each concept—how each concept is separately rooted in a particular context. International Criminal Law is helpful to include in a comparative study because the concept of post- conflict criminal justice is often confused with jus post bellum. The fact that International Criminal Law strictu sensu was not institutionalized from the Treaties of Westphalia to World War II, but has flowered since the end of the Cold War, suggests an incompatibility between a conception of International Law that directly addresses the criminal culpability of natural persons and the dominant conception of International Law during the aforementioned period. The idea that International Law can reach down to the individual, potentially including governmental officials, did not reach a receptive audience until the period after World War II. Similarly, the historical foundation of Transitional Justice in contemporary transitions to democracy reveals why the concept did not take root earlier. The idea of bias towards transitions to democracy or at least human rights protective regimes would have been anathema to an international order that was protective of the status quo and dominated by non-democracies. Finally, it is true that particularly in the aftermath of the conflicts of the late 19th Century and World War I, sovereign states could consent to limitations to the resort to armed force and the methods of warfa...