## Facts

- The International Military Tribunal (IMT) was created by the London Agreement of Aug. 8, 1945; its Charter defined jurisdiction over Crimes against Peace, War Crimes, and Crimes against Humanity, and authorized findings on criminal organizations.
- The prosecuting parties were the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union.
- An indictment filed Oct. 18, 1945 charged 24 senior Nazi officials with four counts: (1) common plan or conspiracy, (2) crimes against peace, (3) war crimes, and (4) crimes against humanity.
- The indictment also sought declarations that six groups or organizations were criminal: the Reich Cabinet; the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party; the SS (including the SD); the Gestapo; the SA; and the General Staff and High Command of the German Armed Forces.
- The trial opened Nov. 20, 1945, in Nuremberg and proceeded for 216 trial days.
- Before trial, Robert Ley committed suicide; Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach was found medically unfit and his case was postponed; Martin Bormann was tried in absentia.
- The Tribunal received extensive evidence of planning and waging aggressive war and of widespread violations committed in occupied territories, including killings, ill-treatment, deportations, forced labor, and persecution of civilians, including the murder of millions of Jews and other groups.
- On Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, 1946, the IMT issued its final Judgment and Sentences, deciding the guilt of each defendant on the counts and ruling on the criminal status of the indicted organizations.

## Issues

1. Whether the IMT Charter was valid international law and whether trying individuals for the charged offenses was barred by nullum crimen sine lege.
2. Whether international law permits individual criminal responsibility for acts carried out through state policy, including by senior political and military leaders.
3. Whether planning, preparing, initiating, or waging a war of aggression constituted a punishable “crime against peace” under international law at the time.
4. What conduct qualified as war crimes and crimes against humanity under Article 6, including whether crimes against humanity required a connection to other crimes within the Tribunal’s jurisdiction.
5. Whether official position (including head-of-state or high office) or “acts of state” barred criminal responsibility.
6. Whether obedience to government or superior orders was a complete defense or only relevant to punishment.
7. Whether, and on what standard, the Tribunal could declare organizations criminal, and which of the indicted organizations met that standard.

## Decision

- The IMT upheld the Charter as “the expression of international law existing at the time of its creation,” and rejected the claim that prosecution was illegitimate retroactive punishment.
- The Tribunal held that international law imposes duties on individuals and that “crimes against international law are committed by men,” so punishment may be imposed on persons, not only states.
- The Tribunal held that wars of aggression, and their planning and preparation, were illegal and criminal under international law; initiating a war of aggression was described as “the supreme international crime.”
- The Tribunal found that widespread killings, ill-treatment, deportations, slave labor, and persecution in occupied territories constituted war crimes and, where connected to crimes within the IMT’s jurisdiction, crimes against humanity.
- The Tribunal rejected immunity based on official position and rejected “acts of state” as a bar to liability for international crimes.
- The Tribunal ruled that superior orders did not free a defendant from responsibility, though they could be considered in mitigation where justice required.
- Individual dispositions: nineteen of the twenty-two tried were convicted on at least one count; three were acquitted (Schacht, von Papen, Fritzsche). Sentences were: death by hanging for Göring, Ribbentrop, Keitel, Kaltenbrunner, Rosenberg, Frank, Frick, Streicher, Sauckel, Jodl, Seyss-Inquart, and Bormann; life imprisonment for Hess, Funk, and Raeder; terms of years for Schirach (20), Speer (20), von Neurath (15), and Dönitz (10).
- Organizational dispositions: the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party, the SS (including the SD), and the Gestapo were declared criminal organizations; the Reich Cabinet, the SA, and the General Staff and High Command were not declared criminal as organizations.

## Legal Principles

- The IMT Charter was treated as a statement of existing international law and a source for individual criminal adjudication by an international tribunal.
- Nullum crimen sine lege was addressed as a principle of justice, not a rule that barred punishment for conduct already prohibited by treaties and the laws and customs of war.
- Individuals may be held criminally responsible for international crimes even when acting through state machinery; state action does not convert unlawful conduct into lawful conduct.
- Official position, including head-of-state status, does not bar responsibility for crimes under international law.
- Superior orders do not provide a complete defense; orders may affect punishment when the tribunal finds it appropriate.
- Crimes against peace include planning, preparing, initiating, or waging a war of aggression or a war in violation of international agreements; aggressive war was treated as uniquely grave because it enables further offenses.
- War crimes include serious violations of the laws and customs of war, including mistreatment of civilians and prisoners of war, unlawful deportations, and forced labor.
- Crimes against humanity include murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and persecution of civilians; under the IMT Charter as applied by the Tribunal, these acts had to be in execution of, or in connection with, other crimes within the Tribunal’s jurisdiction.
- A declaration that an organization is criminal is not a conviction of every member; it is a legal finding intended to support later prosecutions of individuals for knowing membership in a criminal organization.

## Conclusion

In its Judgment and Sentences, the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg affirmed that individuals—including senior state and military leaders—can be punished under international law for aggressive war, war crimes, and certain crimes against humanity; it rejected immunity based on office or state authority, limited superior orders to mitigation, imposed sentences ranging from acquittal to death, and declared the SS (including the SD), the Gestapo, and the Nazi Party Leadership Corps criminal organizations while declining to label other indicted bodies criminal as organizations.


Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal (Nuremberg), Judgment and Sentences, 6 F.R.D. 69 (Int’l Mil. Trib. 1946)