„RE-IMAGINING“ THE BALKANS - INQUIRIES INTO DIVERSITY, BORDERS AND MIGRATION

The course will focus on the following thematic clusters:

• Diversity/Identity/Multiculturalism
• Borders/Borderlands
• Migration

RETHINKING TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE: LESSONS FROM THE BALKANS AND BEYOND

Transitional justice is a rapidly emerging interdisciplinary field of study focusing on processes dealing with past human rights violations and the transition to a more peaceful and democratic society.

This course deals with questions that arise in countries emerging from armed conflict or from periods of authoritarian or repressive rule. It focuses on strategies available to new democratic governments in the aftermath of a situation of massive violations of human rights. The course examines the evolution of transitional justice theory and practice, including truth commissions, trials and traditional practices, in such contexts as post-apartheid South Africa and post-genocide Bosnia and Rwanda. Issues discussed include the various types of justice, accountability, truth, reconciliation, material and symbolic reparations, and the challenges of balancing justice and peace. Drawing on film and literature, as well as accounts by victims and arguments by victim movements, the course will examine the main strategies that have emerged for an engagement with the past.

In this course we will examine the field of transitional justice through:

• Theory: ‘Thinking Transitional Justice’ introduces core concepts and themes in a transitional justice scholarship.
• Practice: ‘Practising Transitional Justice’ critically analysis the major legal and non-judicial strategies deployed by the transitional justice actors, such as truth and reconciliation commissions, amnesty, vetting and lustration.
• Context: ‘Contextualising Transitional Justice’ focuses on the impact and effect of transitional justice mechanisms on social and symbolic repair, gender, memorialisation and reconciliation. We will consider the ways in which transitional justice can be used as a tool for restoring broken social relationships and reconciliation in various settings.

Course Structure:

• Introducing key concepts in transitional justice studies: Trial, Truth Commissions, Vetting, Reparation
• Legal Accountability and Rule of Law: Prosecutions and Trials From Nuremberg to The Hague
• Truth Commissions and other forms of Truth-Seeking
• Civil Society and Role of Arts in Transitional Justice
• Public Memorials and Collective Memory
• Designing a Transitional Justice Process

Case studies may include: South Africa, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Cambodia and Rwanda.

FROM THE DISCOURSE OF BROTHERHOOD AND UNITY TO THE DISCOURSES OF EU INTEGRATION: THE CASE OF "TRANSITION" IN SERBIA

• Background and introduction to the breakup of Yugoslavia
• Post-Milosevic Serbia
• Serbia in transition: community
• Serbia in transition: concepts of friend/enemy
• Serbia in transition: minorities
• Serbia in transition: popular culture

THE CHALLENGE OF INTERNATIONAL INTERVENTION: BALANCING JUSTICE AND ORDER

The fundamental organising principle in the international system has long been one of state sovereignty. Thus, states are considered to have authority over a defined and internationally recognised territory, protected from external intervening forces. In 1991, George Bush Senior spoke of a ‘New World Order’, one in which the United Nations would now be free to fulfil its founders’ visions. Since then, the principle of non-intervention has been challenged by successive interventions into the sovereign affairs of states by international organisations, notably the United Nations and NATO, as well as some states. As if in acceptance of this new world order in which human rights protection could – would – be privileged over traditional understandings of sovereignty, in 2005 the international “community” adopted the principle of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). R2P has since been widely debated by reason of the emphasis it places on achieving justice for people, placing obligations on states to protect the wellbeing of their citizens and to face the possibility of an outside intervention when they fail to do so. However, events since 2005, not least the conflict in Syria, are suggestive of a limited commitment to the principle of rights protection and therefore to the vision of a New World Order.

In this course, students will be introduced to the underpinning concepts and competing understandings of intervention in situations of conflict, state collapse, humanitarian and human rights emergencies. Students will learn to identify and deliver a critical analysis of those factors that shape international intervention. Emphasis is then placed on the application of concepts and theories to real-life scenarios, examining a few of the case studies that have been particularly significant in respect of developing international-level responses to crises. Ultimately, students will be required to deliver well-evidenced verdicts on whether the founding visions of the United Nations have been fulfilled and whether order must always come at the expense of justice.

Course themes:

Throughout the course, students will be asked to consider when and how real moments of change occur and to evaluate the extent to which we see more continuity than change in the international system. Four core themes in the study of Intervention will sit at the heart of our studies: Sovereignty, Legitimacy, Legality, Human Rights. The course aims to help students understand the arguments for and against intervention: what motivates actors to intervene, what constrains them, the inherent costs and dangers of their choices. Through study of a number of interventions, students will debate the choices available to actors in order to achieve an understanding of the context in which difficult decisions are made and the consequences of those decisions.