I did well in this class; largely because the TA I had was fantastic. This professor is very classless, and went out of her way to post a public statement praising the brutalization of her own students for peacefully protesting. Out of principle, avoid this woman, she believes that those who disagree with her deserve to be shot with rubber bullets! Professor Johns, if you ever see this, I hope you reconsider your views and come to be ashamed of your behavior during this time.

Please read, my review gets REAL interesting... and REAL political... I took Leslie Johns in fall of the 2023-2024 school year. Honestly, the EXAM is not EASY. It is not impossible to do well on, but unfortunately, to even be able to do the two exams (midterm and final), you have to read the majority of Ms. Johns book, which is literally a manic manuscript. What I mean by that, is she sat down with her most biased knowledge of International law, and wrote for hours until she hit a couple hundred pages... her examples connect, but in the most hysterical and irrelevant way. She probably looked back at what she wrote, said okay, let's section this, got to add the sources and other necessities. Should I proofread? No, there are only a few (many) grammatical and structural errors. I did it! I did a book! Time to make my student's take an exam on it! She is a poor writer when it comes to the way she structures her book. Not to mention just writing errors she did not want to edit, which left clarity in the air. The TA's carry, but that is bc they even know her book, her class, and her thoughts are not it. Trust, they know she way ahead of herself... wayyyyyy... and it shows. She just talks during her lecture about the context of the class, but none of that will help you with the examination. Maybe she will mention a few names on the low because she obsesses over these irrelevant people who usually turned out racist or discriminatory and she will ask for their name on the exam to get a point or two, but those names are in the textbook... you'll see her bias when you read it. And bias indeed.

The recent encampments at UCLA has created a lot of distress on our campus, so if there is one thing you will learn about international law in this class with lovely Leslie (and its so underrepresented in her textbook, even though she knows its true), is that international law tries to fit in our world, but rarely ever does, hence the outcome is actors, past, present, future, getting off the hook for horrific crimes. I do not care if you disagree with me on the Israel/Palestine conflict, but the brass of it is that what Israel has been doing is a HUMANITARIAN CRISIS. If you must take the class, trust, I am giving a better introduction than Leslie ever will. The International Criminal Court (ICC) defines crimes against humanity as serious violations that occur as part of a widespread attack against civilians. Politics or not, you need to set aside your thoughts if you disagree with me and just think about how many Palestinians have died in the last several months since Israel had been attacked. You will learn there are still ways to address an attack as such, that does not include the death of 35,000 civilians and counting... whether you like my opinion or not, you will come to find in this class that this... this is an example of CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY. Our campus encampment, was a safe place until attacked (if you do not know- UCLA Counterprotest Attack on April 30, 2024). I will not even blame Jewish people for this attack, it was not all Jewish people, it does not represent the Jewish population, and there ARE MANY jewish students (myself for one), WHO were in the encampment, WHO fully stand with the PEACE and rebuilding of Palestine—who protest for ANTI-WAR. Yes, there are agitators, on both ends. They. Do. Not. Represent. The. Overall. Population. I will also state that per the UCLA Code of Conduct and other documents you can attain from UCLA by request only - THE ENCAMPMENT WAS LEGAL.

So without further a do, here is Ms. Johns statement. I will remind you, this professor teaches INTERNATIONAL LAW at UCLA the #1 Public University. This professor, who teaches international law, MUST be understanding of humanitarian crisis, MUST know what war crimes are, MUST know the current news about the ICC. THE I.C.C. THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT EXPRESSING THE NEED FOR CEASEFIRE. Ms. Johns. MUST KNOW. Right?

Statement from Professor Leslie Johns on the UCLA Encampment - UNDER UCLA POLITICAL SCIENCE HOME.

"Dear Chancellor Block,

Thank you for taking action to remove the illegal Gaza Encampment from campus.

This action will greatly reassure Jewish students, faculty, and staff that they are safe and welcome on campus.

I urge you to follow up on this action by pursuing disciplinary actions against all involved students and faculty at the strictest level possible. This incident must not be repeated. A contentious election is coming up and I fear that this will become the “new normal” at UCLA if you don’t continue taking decisive action.

This incident is not yet over.

Best,

Leslie Johns
Professor of Political Science and Law"