Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T21:14:15.008Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - Nuremberg, Tokyo, and Other Postwar Cases

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2009

Kenneth S. Gallant
Affiliation:
University of Arkansas
Get access

Summary

The Nuremberg Judgment correctly stated then-current law: nullum crimen sine lege was not a limitation of sovereignty. Specifically, nullum crimen sine lege did not state an international law-based human right that could be asserted by an individual against a state, group of states, or international organization. It was correct at least partly because, at the time, there was little interference by international law in the internal arrangements by which governments ruled their people, and the Nuremberg Judgment itself did not announce the violation of the principle of legality as one of the crimes against humanity and war crimes of which the accused might be convicted. Substantive international human rights and humanitarian law had not evolved to make this a right of individuals enforceable against states (or other prosecuting authorities, such as international organizations – should they come to exist).

The English version of the Nuremberg Judgment was also correct in stating that nullum crimen sine lege is a principle of justice. At least it was recognized as a fundamental principle of criminal justice by many persons and nations by the time of World War II, including the principal French judge Henri Donnedieu de Vabres.

The drafters of what became the Charter of the International Military Tribunal (IMT), which known as the Nuremberg Charter, struggled over the issue of legality and ex post facto legislation, and whether the issue could be defined out of existence simply by including criminal definitions in the text of the Charter.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Cassese, Antonio, Crimes against Humanity, in 1 The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: A Commentary 353, 354–55 (Cassese, Antonio, Gaeta, Paola & Jones, John R. W. D., eds., Oxford Univ. Press 2002).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krylov, Serge, Les notions principales du droit des gens (La doctrine soviétique du droit international), 70(I) Recueil des Cours 407, 446–48, 450–51 (1947)Google Scholar
Vabres, H. Donnedieu, Le procès de Nuremberg devant les principes modernes du droit pénal international, 70(I) Recueil des Cours 477, 574 (1947).Google Scholar
,Henri Felix August Donnedieu de Vabres, Les principes modernes de droit pénal international 414–15 (Librairie du Recueil Sirey 1928).Google Scholar
Kochavi, Arieh J., Prelude to Nuremberg: Allied War Crimes Policy and the Question of Punishment 66–70 (Univ. of N.C. Press 1998)Google Scholar
Menthon, François, Opening Speech, 17 January 1946, in The Trial of the German Major War Criminals by the International Military Tribunal Sitting at Nuremberg Germany Commencing 20th November, 1945, Opening Speeches 89, 117 (H. M. Attorney-General by H. M. Stationery Office 1946).Google Scholar
Reydams, Luc, Universal Jurisdiction: International and Municipal Legal Perspectives 22 & n.55 (Oxford Univ. Press 2003) (citing sources)Google Scholar
Rubin, Alfred P., The Law of Piracy (Naval War College Press 1988)Google Scholar
Smith, Bradley F., Reaching Judgment at Nuremberg 29 (Basic Books 1977)Google Scholar
Bassiouni, M. Cherif, Crimes Against Humanity in International Criminal Law 4–5 (2d ed., Transnational Publishers 1999).Google Scholar
Kissinger, Henry, Diplomacy 411 (Simon & Schuster 1994)Google Scholar
Taylor, Telford, The Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials: A Personal Memoir 34, 38 (Alfred A. Knopf 1992)Google Scholar
Jackson, Robert H.United States Representative to the International Conference on Military Trials: London 1945, 18 (U.S. Gov't Printing Off. 1949Google Scholar
Smith, Bradley F., The American Road to Nuremberg 55, 117 (Hoover Institution Press 1982).Google Scholar
The Law of War: A Documentary History, 842, 860, 865 (Friedman, Leon, ed., Random House 1972).
, P. D., Note on the Nuremberg Trials, 62 L.Q. Rev. 229, 231 (1946).Google Scholar
Jackson, Robert H., Preface, in Rep. of Jackson at 384–85, vii–viii.
Biddle, Francis, in Brief Authority 472–73 (Greenwood Press 1962).Google Scholar
Weston, Burns H. et al., International Law and World Order: A Problem-Oriented Coursebook 172 (3d ed., West 1997)Google Scholar
Schachter, Oscar, International Law in Theory and Practice 129–30 (Kluwer 1991)Google Scholar
Unger, Aryeh L., Constitutional Development in the USSR 140 (Pica Press 1981)Google Scholar
Berman, Harold J., Soviet Criminal Law and Procedure: The RSFSR Codes 25–26 (Harvard Univ. Press 1966)Google Scholar
Johann, PaulFeuerbach, Anselm Ritter, Lehrbuch des gemeinen in Deutschland geltenden Peinlichen Rechts24, p. 20 (Georg Friedrich Heyer 1801)Google Scholar
Hall, Jerome, Nulla Poena Sine Lege, 47 Yale L. J. 165, 169–70 (1938).Google Scholar
Stahmer, Otto, Legal Argument, 17 IMT, Trial at 498, 507
Ryu, Paul K. & Silving, Helen, International Criminal Law: A Search for Meaning, in 1 Bassiouni, M. Cherif & Nanda, Ved P., A Treatise on International Criminal Law 22, 29 n.23 (Charles C. Thomas 1973).Google Scholar
Cassese, A., Crimes Against Humanity: Comments on Some Problematical Aspects, in The International Legal System in quest of Equity and Universality: L'ordre juridique international, un système en quête d'équité et d'universalité: Liber Amicorum G. Abi-Saab 429, 433–35 (Chazournes, Laurence Boisson & Gowlland-Debbas, Vera eds., Martinus Nijhoff 2001)Google Scholar
Fehr, Hans, Recht und Wirklichkeit; Einblick in Werden und Vergehen der Rechtsformen (1927)
Jørgensen, Nina H.B., The Responsibility of States for International Crimes 28 nn.1–2 (2000)
Glueck, Sheldon, The Nuremberg Trial and Aggressive War 74ff. n.3 (Kraus Reprint Co. 1976)Google Scholar
Conot, Robert E., Justice at Nuremberg 481–98 (Chaps. 55–56) (Harper & Row 1983)Google Scholar
Biddle, Francis, In Brief Authority 465–87 (Doubleday & Co. 1962).Google Scholar
Kelsen, Hans, Will the Judgment in the Nuremberg Trial Constitute a Precedent in International Law?, 1 Int'l L.Q. 153, 164–65 (1947)Google Scholar
Sadat, Leila N., The International Criminal Court and the Transformation of International Law: Justice for the New Millenium 30 n.34 (Transnational Publishers 2002)Google Scholar
Meron, Theodore, The Role of Custom in the Formation of International Humanitarian Law, 90 A.J.I.L. 238, 239 (1996)Google Scholar
Bassiouni, M. Cherif, International Criminal Investigations and Prosecutions: From Versailles to Rwanda, in 3 International Criminal Law (Enforcement) 31, 52 (Bassiouni, M. Cherif, ed., 2d ed., Transnational Publishers 1999)Google Scholar
Dando, Shigemitsu, Basic Concepts in Temporal and Territorial Limits on the Applicability of the Penal Law of Japan, 9 N.Y. L. Sch. J. Int'l Comp. L. 237 (1988).Google Scholar
Ryu, Paul K. & Silving, Helen, International Criminal Law: A Search for Meaning, in 1 A Treatise on International Criminal Law 22, 39 n.23 (Bassiouni, M. C. & Nanda, Ved P., eds., 1973).Google Scholar
Ferdinandusse, Ward N., Direct Application of International Criminal Law in National Courts 227 n.1337 (TMC Asser 2006).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Minear, Richard H., Victor's Justice: The Tokyo War Crimes Trial (Princeton Univ. Press 1971).Google Scholar
Morris, Madeline, High Crimes and Misconceptions: The ICC and Non-Party States, 64 Law & Contemp. Probs. 13, 37–38 (2001)Google Scholar
Brackman, Arnold C., The Other Nuremberg 69 (1987)
Kopelman, Elizabeth S., Ideology and International Law: The Dissent of the Indian Justice at the Tokyo War Crimes Trial, 23 NYU J. Int'l L. & Politics 373, 383–84 n.34 (1991)Google Scholar
Americano, Jorge, New Foundations of International Law 38–39 (Macmillan 1947).Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×