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Scholar to Examine Development of International Judicial System for Genocide and War Crimes

(PDF) (DOC) (JPG)September 8, 2015

MAHWAH, N.J. –Dr. Mark Lewis, associate professor of history at the College of Staten Island of the City University, will discuss “The Birth of the New Justice” on Friday, October 9 at 1 p.m. at Ramapo College in the Alumni Lounges (SC156-57). The Gross Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies will sponsor this event.

Dr. Lewis will examine how ad hoc and permanent international criminal courts and new international criminal laws from the end of World War I to the beginning of the Cold War evolved into an attempt to repress aggressive war, war crimes, terrorism, and genocide.

Rather than arguing that these legal projects were attempts by state governments to project a “liberal legalism” and limit national sovereignty, Dr. Lewis will show that the actions of European jurists were variously motivated and that legal organizations were not merely interested in ensuring that the guilty were punished or that international peace was assured. Instead, he will show that they also hoped to instill particular moral values, represent the interests of certain social groups and even pursue national agendas.

London’s Wiener Library awarded the manuscript of his book, The Birth of the New Justice: The Internationalization of Crime and Punishment, 19191950, on which his talk is based, its Fraenkel Prize. Dr. Lewis also is the co-author of Himmler’s Jewish Tailor: The Story of Holocaust Survivor Jacob Frank, the oral history of a Polish Jew who was the head of a clothing factory at the SS-run labor camp on Lipowa Street in Lublin, Poland.

A graduate of Stanford University, Lewis received a Ph.D. in European history from the University of California, Los Angeles.

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About Ramapo College

Ramapo College of New Jersey is the state’s premier public liberal arts college and is committed to academic excellence through interdisciplinary and experiential learning, and international and intercultural understanding. The comprehensive college is situated among the beautiful Ramapo Mountains, is within commuting distance to New York City, was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful College Campuses in America by CondeNast Traveler, and boasts the best on-campus housing in New Jersey per Niche.com. Established in 1969, Ramapo College offers bachelor’s degrees in the arts, business, data science, humanities, social sciences and the sciences, as well as in professional studies, which include business, education, nursing and social work. In addition, the College offers courses leading to teacher certification at the elementary and secondary levels, and offers graduate programs leading to master’s degrees in Accounting, Applied Mathematics, Business Administration, Contemporary Instructional Design, Computer Science, Creative Music Technology, Data Science, Educational Leadership, Nursing, Social Work and Special Education, as well as a Doctor of Nursing Practice.

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