Information

September 2025 - August 2026
Study Mode Full-time
Application start 4 November 2024
Application end 13 February 2025
Application end (with scholarship) 9 January 2025

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William A. Schabas

William A. Schabas

Professor of International Law at Middlesex University, London

Areas of expertise

International Human Rights Law  /  International Courts and Tribunals  /  International Criminal Court  /  Death Penalty  /  Transitional Justice  /  Genocide  /  International Criminal Justice  /  Crimes against Humanity

William A. Schabas is a Professor of International Law at Middlesex University, London. He is also a Professor Emeritus at Leiden University and the University of Galway, and an invited visiting scholar at the Paris School of International Affairs, Sciences Po.

Recognized as a leading expert on international human rights law, international criminal law, genocide and capital punishment, he is the author of more than 20 books and 400 journal articles on these issues. He is also Editor Emeritus of Criminal Law Forum, the quarterly journal of the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law.

Professor Schabas was a member of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He also worked as a consultant on capital punishment for the UN Office of Drugs and Crime and drafted the 2010, 2015 and 202 reports of the UN Secretary-General on the status of the death penalty.

He is an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Member of the Royal Irish Academy and he has been awarded the Vespasian V. Pella Medal for International Criminal Justice by the Association Internationale de Droit Pénal.

Professor Schabas holds BA and MA degrees in history from the University of Toronto, and LLB, LLM and LLD degrees from the Université de Montréal, as well as honorary doctorates in Law from several universities.

Taught Courses

ICC Trial Chamber III sentences Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo to 18 years’ imprisonment for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Central African Republic in 2002-2003 Master in transitional justice - Course

The Foundations of International Criminal Justice as a Component of Transitional Justice

This course addresses the aims and functioning of criminal justice, with a special focus on actors and institutions at the international level.

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Al-Bashir case: ICC Pre-Trial Chamber II, July 2017 Executive Master - Course

International Criminal Law: General Principles and International Crimes

This course reviews the origins of international criminal law, its relationship with the international legal order including the UN Security Council and its coexistence with national justice institutions. The scope of international crimes – genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression – is considered alongside initiatives to expand or add to these categories.

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Al Mahdi case: ICC Trial Chamber VIII issues reparations order, 17 August 2017 Short Course

International Criminal Law: General Principles and International Crimes

This online short course reviews the origins of international criminal law, its relationship with the international legal order including the UN Security Council and its coexistence with national justice institutions. The scope of international crimes – genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression – is considered alongside initiatives to expand or add to these categories.

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Publications

The Trial of the Kaiser

October 2018

William A. Schabas

Oxford University Press

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cover of the book Introduction to the International Criminal Court’

Introduction to the International Criminal Court

March 2017

William A. Schabas

Cambridge University Press

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Cover of the book The International Criminal Court: A Commentary on the Rome Statute’

The International Criminal Court: A Commentary on the Rome Statute

September 2016

William A. Schabas

Oxford University Press

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Cover of the book The European Convention on Human Rights: A Commentary

The European Convention on Human Rights: A Commentary

September 2015

William A. Schabas

Oxford University Press

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