This event is the first of three workshops that will take place on Thursday, January 29, 2026, Tuesday, February 24, 2026, and Wednesday, March 25, 2026, at 12:30 p.m., both over Zoom and in person in the Slowinski Courtroom at the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law.

The workshops precede a two-day international conference, International Criminal Law 80 Years Later: The Crossroads of Law, Ethics, Religion, and International Law, to be held at The Catholic University of America on April 12 and 13, 2027. The three workshops will provide students and faculty with the opportunity to discuss a wide range of interdisciplinary issues related to current challenges to international law, including the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, as well as American military intervention in Venezuela.

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The first workshop will examine the shift from a pre-20th-century “Old World Order” premised on sovereignty and the just war theory of the seventeenth-century jurist Hugo Grotius, in which wars of aggression could be legally and morally justifiable, to a “New World Order” exemplified in the Nuremberg Principles, in which “might is not necessarily right.” Grotian concepts of just war and state sovereignty experienced shockwaves after the 1914-1918 Great War. Still, they remained fundamentally unaltered until the horrific Nazi genocide led to the development of the Nuremberg Principles that established norms limiting sovereignty as a shield for accountability of individuals and heads of state for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and aggression. They spurred the development of international institutions to enforce these norms and protect human rights.

In the 21st century, powerful states have increasingly challenged this “New World Order” by acting unilaterally and forcefully against vulnerable states, by withdrawing from international organizations, and by openly questioning the applicability of “New World Order” international law to their actions.

This workshop will discuss the continued relevance of the Nuremberg Principles today from theological, moral, and legal perspectives, including human rights and individual liberties, especially freedom of expression, and just war theory. Are the key tenets of international law set out in the Nuremberg Principles still a practical global framework for accountability for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and military aggression, or are their core ideals powerless illusions?

Students are encouraged to submit written questions for the workshop panelists by 11:49 a.m. on January 24, 2026, by email at fischer@cua.edu. There will also be an opportunity for Q&A during the workshop.

 

Suggested Reading: Materials to Read Before the Workshop

Bazyler, Michael, Noëlle Quénivet, Ashot Agaian, and Lydia Korostelova. The Russo-Ukrainian War Law Handbook (Carolina Academic Press, 2025), Chapter 10: Individual Liability at https://cap-press.com/pdf/The_Russo-Ukrainian_War_Law_Handbook.pdf

Hathaway, Oona, International Law Goes to War in Ukraine, 38 Emory Int’l. Rev. 569 (2024). Available at https://scholarlycommons.law.emory.edu/eilr/vol38/iss3/1/

Kreß, Claus, Russia’s War of Aggression against Ukraine and the Crime of Aggression, in Breger Marshall J. et al., Nuremberg Principles and Ukraine (2025). This book will be on reserve in the Dufour Law Library of the Columbus School of Law, The Catholic University of America.

Morozowich, Father Mark, A Theological Perspective of Law and Morality About the Just and the Unjust Russian War Conflict, in Breger Marshall J. et al., Nuremberg Principles and Ukraine (2025).

Breger, Marshall J. and Herbert R. Reginbogin, (eds.), The Nuremberg Principles and Ukraine: The Contemporary Challenges to Peace, Security, and Justice. (Bloomsbury Academic, 2025)

Supplemental Reading Materials

Cassese, Antonio. Realizing Utopia: The Future of International Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012)

Kreß, Claus, “The Ukraine War and the Prohibition of the Use of Force in International Law (Brussels, Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher, 2022), available at https://www.toaep.org/ops-pdf/13-kress/

Lauterpacht, Hersch. International Law: Being the Collected Papers of Hersch Lauterpacht (E. Lauterpacht (ed.), vol 2, The Law of Peace, Part 1, International Law in General (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1975), pp. 307-365.

Reginbogin, Herbert, and Christoph Saffering. The Nuremberg Trials: International Criminal Law Since 1945 (Munich: K.G. Saur, 2006)

Schaack, Beth Van, and Ronald C. Slye. International Criminal Law and Its Enforcement: Cases and Materials. 4th Edition (Foundation Press, 2020).

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War. translated by Richard Crawley (New York, 1950) available at https://antilogicalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/history-pelo-war.pdf