Saturday 21 November 2020

nürnberger prozesse

The International Military Tribunal having officially started two days prior with precedent established by the Leipziger Prozesse in the aftermath of World War I which while under the jurisdiction of Germany’s own legal system informed the legal framework for prosecuting war crime despite no punishment possible rising to the occasion to fit the transgression, US Supreme Court associate justice, the Honourable Robert Houghwout Jackson (*1892 – †1954) delivered his opening remarks for the prosecution on this day in 1945, setting the stage over the course of a several hours’ long oration for the court and for the press covering proceedings and relaying them to the public. Rejecting the superior orders, Befehl est Befehl defence, the Tribunal fixed the notion that crimes against humanity are the culpability of individuals and not abstractions or an imposed collective and only through such judgment can international law be enforced, informing in turn the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the permanent International Criminal Court