Nuremberg Criminal Trial §

Created Time: April 8, 2022 8:10 PM Database: Evergreen Database Last Edited Time: April 8, 2022 8:10 PM Type: Permanent Notes

• The Nuremberg trials were a series of military tribunals held after World War 2 by the Allies using international law and the laws of war. Twenty-four major political and military leaders of Nazi Germany, indicted for aggressive war, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, were brought to trial before the International Military Tribunal. The Nuremberg trials initiated a movement for the prompt establishment of a permanent international human rights movement, eventually leading over fifty years later to the adoption of the Statute of the International Criminal Court. There are also some influences on the international human rights movement including:
  • Expanding individual liability under international law from ‘universal crimes’, such as piracy on the high seas to war crimes and ‘crimes against humanity in which change the nature of international law.
  • No longer the preserve solely of nations: Meaning individuals liable for crimes against humanity and war crimes, sentencing them accordingly.- The Tribunal shaped those crimes against international law are committed by men, not by abstract entities, and only by punishing individuals who commit such crimes can the provisions of international law be enforced. Example: ECCC
  • The new United Nations drew on the early potential for individual responsibility, and it follows, individual rights, progressively elaborating on the tentative references to human rights incorporated into the Charter of the organization.