Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity - Resources | Principles of International Law Recognized in the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal

• Principles of International Law Recognized in the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal and in the Judgment of the Tribunal

INTRODUCTION The Nuremberg Principles were adopted by the International Law Commission, acting under instructions from the United Nations General Assembly. They confirm a number of important principles, including the prohibition of the defense of superior orders, the denial of immunity for heads of state, and the liability of accomplices. In the Eichmann trial, the Israeli Supreme Court said that the Nuremberg Principles have become part of the law of nations and must be regarded as having been rooted in it also in the past.

Principles of International Law Recognized in the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal and in the Judgment of the Tribunal

Principle I

Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefore and liable to punishment.

Principle II

The fact that internal law does not impose a penalty for an act which constitutes a crime under international law does not relieve the person who committed the act from responsibility under international law.

Principle III

The fact that a person who committed an act which constitutes a crime under international law acted as Head of State or responsible Government official does not relieve him from responsibility under international law.

Principle IV

The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him.

Principle V

Any person charged with a crime under international law has the right to a fair trial on the facts and law.

Principle VI

The crimes hereinafter set out are punishable as crimes under international law:

• (a) Crimes against peace:
• • (i) Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances;
  • (ii) Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the acts mentioned under (i).
• (b) War crimes:

  Violations of the laws or customs of war which include, but are not limited to, murder, ill treatment or deportation to slave-labour or for any other purpose of civilian population of or in occupied territory; murder or ill treatment of prisoners of war, of persons on the Seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity.

• (c) Crimes against humanity:

  Murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation and other inhuman acts done against any civilian population, or persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds, when such acts are done or such persecutions are carried on in execution of or in connection with any crime against peace or any war crime.

Principle VII

Complicity in the commission of a crime against peace, a war crime, or a crime against humanity as set forth in Principle VI is a crime under international law.

* Text adopted by the Commission at its second session, in 1950, and submitted to the General Assembly as a part of the Commission's report covering the work of that session. The report, which also contains commentaries on the principles, appears in Yearbook of the International Law Commission, 1950, vol. II.