July 18, 2022 - July 23, 2022
Kigali, Rwanda

Rethinking Futures of Justice: Beyond the Limits of the Law

Applications Are Now Closed for the
2022 Critical International Law Summer School

Contact [email protected] for more information

Program Overview

Application Requirements

In the Summer of 2018, as part of a course entitled The Making and Unmaking of International Law, Professor Kamari Clarke, with the assistance of consultant, Sarah-Jane Koulen, hosted an International Law Summer School in The Hague, Netherlands. With participation from visiting scholars such as Professors Jill Stauffer, Sara Kendall and Siba Grovogui, amongst others, the course aimed to provide students with an immersive experience of international law in the making.

Inspired by the success of this program, the team collaborated with partners in Rwanda and at the University of Rwanda to create a similar immersive learning experience outside of Europe. With a commitment to exploring justice issues within African spatial geographies and social worlds, the result of this engagement is the development of a new summer program established with the collaboration between the Transnational Justice Project at the University of Toronto, The University of Rwanda, Haverford College and Kent Law School.

In the contemporary period, the term “justice” is often presumed to refer to legal justice, yet justice means much more than legality. This limited understanding of justice often results in consequential socio-economic and political conditions that contribute to people’s experiences and perceptions of justice being increasingly pushed aside in the international justice landscape. Nowhere is this more significant than in the Global South, where the focus has thus far increasingly been on the prosecution of crimes rather than the historical conditions that gave rise to them.

Application Requirements

Applicants should submit the following documents for consideration:

(a) a cover letter explaining the value of this summer school for your research
(b) a 350-500 word abstract describing your research interests
(c) a Curriculum vitae (CV) or resume
(d) two letters of recommendation

The inclusive course cost is USD $2,000. This includes accommodation, meals, tuition and registration fees, and ground transportation for class trips.
Air transportation to Bogotá and transfers to the hotel and airport are not included and are the responsibility of participants. A registration deposit of $500 is required at the time of acceptance and will be deducted from the total course cost.

Key Dates

Application Deadline

Selection Decisions Sent

Registration Deposit Due

Final Course Fee Due

December 31, 2021

March, 2022

April 1, 2022

May 1, 2022

Experience a Unique Program in

Critical International Law

Immersed in the Culture and History of

Beautiful Kigali

This 7-day collaborative summer school focuses on the development of a critical international law pedagogy through a collaborative international law network that explores international justice though an integrated and interdisciplinary approach. The goal is to bring together faculty in the network who will contribute to the teaching, research and mentoring mission of the network, while also offering students and faculty an opportunity to share their research and critically reflect on some of the most pressing concerns of the contemporary period – especially in the Global South. The long-term goal is to continue to build inter-institutional linkages with students, faculty, postdoctoral fellows and researchers in the Global North and South.

The week-long workshop will focus on the exploration of the processes through which international criminal law is being taught, learned, structured and innovated. But it also seeks to build critical pedagogies that will grow and take root through its faculty and graduate student base. By examining the key components of international justice –its social constructions, law’s technocratic potential, the political economy and affective life—the course is committed to exploring the actors engaged in the making of international criminal law regimes as well as the contexts within which such forms of international law are made to intervene. With attention on the lawyers, diplomats, Non-Governmental Organizations, and various institutions that shape the moral values of contemporary law and the role of other actors engaged in supporting and facilitating justice work, the course explores the contexts, innovations, controversies, and contestations within the field of international criminal law.