The Nuremberg Tribunal: Law Above States

On August 8, 1945, the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union signed the London Charter, creating an International Military Tribunal to try major Nazi leaders. The Charter defined three categories of crime: crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity, the last covering murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation and persecution of civilians. The trial opened at Nuremberg in November 1945. The American prosecutor Robert H.

Jackson declared that four great nations, 'flushed with victory and stung with injury', had chosen to 'stay the hand of vengeance' and submit their enemies to the judgment of law. The tribunal's judgment stated that 'crimes against international law are committed by men, not by abstract entities', establishing that individuals could not hide behind the state. Of 22 defendants tried, 12 were sentenced to death and 3 acquitted.

Critics called it 'victors' justice', noting that Allied conduct was not examined, but the trial laid foundations for modern international criminal law.