The 2008 Specialization Course on ‘The Shari^ca and International Criminal Law’ was held in Siracusa from May 25th until June 4th, 2008. The course was sponsored by the International Institute for Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences (Siracusa, Italy), the International Human Rights Law Institute, DePaul University College of Law (Chicago, USA), the University of Palermo Faculty of Law (Palermo, Italy) and the International Association of Penal Law (Paris, France).

The Specialization Course was attended by fifty-seven participants from all over the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia and the Middle East. English was the official language of the course. These individuals are recent law graduates, practitioners, academics or students, currently pursuing higher education or careers in the fields of international criminal law and international relations. Twenty-eight different countries were represented among the participants involved in the Specialization Course. The course was taught and attended by eight distinguished faculty members and judges.

The Specialization Course consisted of two parts, which included all day lecture sessions that were followed by several days of a moot court competition. At the end, all the participants attended 14 working sessions for a total of 40 actual academic contact hours. The lectures involved the following topics: Introduction to Islam; Sources of the Shari^ca: Methodologies and Approaches in Sunni and Shi^ca Doctrines; The History of the Shari^ca; The Shari^ca and International Law; The Shari^ca and International Humanitarian Law; The Shari^ca and Human Rights; The Shari^ca and the ICC; The Shari^ca and Human Trafficking; Crimes and Penalties in the Shari^ca (Hudud, Qesas and Ta^cazir Crimes); Round Table: Compatibility between Shari^ca and ICL: Genocide, Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes, Terrorism, Trafficking of Human Beings for Sexual Exploitation, Drug Trafficking.

The second part of the course involved a moot court competition. During this competition, the participants were divided into teams of three or four, and each team argued before the International Court of Justice for either the Applicant or Respondent. The oral arguments took place before panels of faculty member judges, and involved legal issues that may emerge in the future as the International Criminal Court begins to adjudicate cases. The moot court competition culminated with a semi-final round, which involved the top four teams, and the final competition that included the two winning teams from the semi-final round. Both of these rounds occurred before a panel of judges that consisted of participating faculty. Moot court competition awards were given to the winning Applicant team, and to the Respondent runners up.

The winners of the competition were:

- Ms. Sinem Taskin (Germany)  

- Mr. Harpreet Giani (India) 

- Ms. Lea Ann Fracasso (USA) 

- Mr. Zachery Lampell (USA)  

The second best team winners were:

- Ms. Christine Schön (Germany) 

- Ms. Hilde Farthofer (Austria) 

- Mr. Karolina Kremens (Poland) 

- Ms. Claudia Medina Aguilar (Colombia/Spain)

At the conclusion of the Specialization Course, there was an awards ceremony. Ms. Sinem Taskin (Germany) was awarded the Best Oralist Award and Mr. Mohammed Wattad (Israel) received the second place award. Moreover, every participant in the Specialization Course received a certificate of attendance to the course.