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The Scholars' CircleAuthor: The Scholars' Circle
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Scholars’ Circle – Prosecuting War Crimes – May 3, 2026
Sunday, 3 May, 2026
The last few years have been a particularly challenging time for the international law framework outlines at Nuremberg. The trial of the German leadership at the end of the Second World War, coupled with the creation of the UN and the UN Charter, codified a series of legal obligations for state leaders. It outlawed waging war or even threatening war. It held individual leaders as criminally liable for violating the rules of war. And it promised prosecutions as a result of these violations. While it had never realized its promise, the past few years, from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, to terrorist attacks against Israel and Israel’s waging of war in Gaza and Lebanon, to the Israeli and American war against Iran, have been a particular challenge to the so-called Nuremberg principles. So on today’s show, we explore what these principles are whether international actors can return to their promise. [ dur: 58mins. ] Elizabeth Borgwardt is former Pozen Professor of Human Rights at the University of Chicago. She is the author of A New Deal for the World: America’s Vision for Human Rights and the upcoming The Nuremberg Idea: Thinking Humanity in History, Law and Politics. Jennifer Trahan is a Clinical Professor and Director of the Concentration in International Law and Human Rights at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs. She is also Convenor of the Global Institute for the Prevention of Aggression, and is the author of Existing Legal Limits to the Use of the Veto in the Face of Atrocity Crimes. And the forthcoming The Crime of Aggression and Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine. Mark Drumbl is Professor at Washington and Lee University, School of Law, and Director of the University’s Transnational Law Institute. He is the author of Atrocity, Punishment, and International Law and is the co-editor of Sights, Sounds and Sensibilities of Atrocity Prosecution with Caroline Fournet. Hurst Hannum is Professor Emeritus of International Law at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He is the author of Autonomy, Sovereignty, and Self-Determination: The Accommodation of Conflicting Rights, Rethinking self-determination and Rescuing Human Rights: A Radically Moderate Approach. This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian, Anna Lapin and Sudd Dongre. Politics and Activism, Human Rights, Peace / Nonviolence, War / Weapons, War Crimes, Justice
