Psychology & Brain Sciences 391GC - S-IntJustc/AgeOfGlobalConflict

This course examines the role that international justice plays in globalized conflicts around the world, specifically taking into account psychological and social scientific perspectives. We will start by looking at different forms of justice, their limitations and dangers, and how they were applied in international conflicts (e.g., Nuremberg trials, truth and reconciliation commissions such as in South Africa, international criminal tribunals such as for the former Yugoslavia, native justice traditions such as those by the Navajo or Gypsies). We will then examine the relationships between justice on the one side and truth, morality, forgiveness, reconciliation, tolerance, peace, (just?) War, and empathy and emotions on the other side. While doing so, we will make connections to collective action, regime change, bystandership, the Responsibility to Protect and the Duty to Aid, and humanitarian interventions. Over the course of the semester you will also learn about International Criminal Law, human rights, and legal bodies such as the International Court of Justice. We will examine how they are used to prosecute minor players and state leaders accused of crimes, and analyze how people try to justify and excuse themselves legally and psychologically. At the end of the semester we will assess the effectiveness of justice processes, and investigate public perceptions of justice (e.g. the reception of Milosevic?s trial in Serbia or Saddam Hussein?s trial in Iraq) and the effects of justice on survivors of injustice and violence. We will conclude the course with the question of how to promote global justice, and the connected problem of when, where, and whom to give justice (e.g. international interventions in Serbia or Libya, but not in Rwanda or Syria).

Open to Senior and Junior Psychology majors only. Pre Req: PSYCH 240, 241 & 360