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London Charter of the International Military Tribunal

 

 
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London Charter of the International Military Tribunal
 
 
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The London Charter of the International Military Tribunal (usually referred to simply as the London Charter or Nuremberg Charter) was the decree issued on August 8, 1945, that set down the laws and procedures by which the Nuremberg trials
Nuremberg Trials

The Nuremberg Trials were a series of trials, or tribunals, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of Nazi Germany after its defeat in World War II....
 were to be conducted. The charter stipulated that crimes of the European Axis Powers could be tried. Three categories of crimes were defined: war crime
War crime

War crimes are "violations of the laws or customs of war"; including but not limited to "murder, the ill-treatment or deportation of civilian residents of an occupied territory to slave labor camps", "the murder or ill-treatment of prisoner of war", the killing of hostages, "the wanton destruction of cities, towns and villages, and any devast...
s, crimes against peace, and crimes against humanity.






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The London Charter of the International Military Tribunal (usually referred to simply as the London Charter or Nuremberg Charter) was the decree issued on August 8, 1945, that set down the laws and procedures by which the Nuremberg trials
Nuremberg Trials

The Nuremberg Trials were a series of trials, or tribunals, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of Nazi Germany after its defeat in World War II....
 were to be conducted. The charter stipulated that crimes of the European Axis Powers could be tried. Three categories of crimes were defined: war crime
War crime

War crimes are "violations of the laws or customs of war"; including but not limited to "murder, the ill-treatment or deportation of civilian residents of an occupied territory to slave labor camps", "the murder or ill-treatment of prisoner of war", the killing of hostages, "the wanton destruction of cities, towns and villages, and any devast...
s, crimes against peace, and crimes against humanity. The charter also stated that holding an official position was no defense to war crimes. Obedience to orders
Nuremberg Defense

The Nuremberg Defense is a legal defense that essentially states that the defendant was "only following orders" and is therefore not responsible for his crimes....
 could only be considered in mitigation of punishment if the Tribunal determined that justice so required.

The criminal procedure
Criminal procedure

'Criminal procedure' refers to the legal process for adjudication claims that someone has violated criminal law....
 used by the Tribunal was closer to civil law
Civil law (legal system)

Civil law is a most prevalent legal system in the modern world and the oldest in human history. It is based on a code, or "a systematic collection of interrelated articles written in a terse, staccato style." The two other major legal systems in the world are common law and Islamic law....
 than to common law
Common law

Common law refers to law and the corresponding Legal systems of the world developed through legal opinion of courts and similar tribunals , rather than through statute law or Executive ....
, with a trial before a panel of judges rather than a jury trial
Jury trial

A jury trial is a legal proceeding in which a jury either makes a decision or makes findings of fact which are then applied by a judge. It is be distinguished from a bench trial, in which a judge or panel of judges make all decisions....
 and with wide allowance for hearsay
Hearsay

Not to be confused with heresy.Hearsay literally means information gathered by the first person from a second person concerning some event, condition, or thing of which the first person had no direct experience....
 evidence. Defendants who were found guilty could appeal
Appeal

In law, an appeal is a process for requesting a formal change to an official decision.The specific procedures for appealing, including even whether there is a right of appeal from a particular type of decision, can vary greatly from country to country....
 the verdict to the Allied Control Council
Allied Control Council

The Allied Control Council or Allied Control Authority, known in German language as the Alliierter Kontrollrat, also referred to as the Four Powers , was a military occupation governing body of the Allied Occupation Zones in Germany after the end of World War II in Europe; the members were the United States, the United Kingdo...
. In addition, they would be permitted to present evidence in their defense and to cross-examine
Cross-examination

In law, cross-examination is the interrogation of a witness called by one's opponent. It is preceded by direct examination and may be followed by a Redirect examination ....
 witnesses.

The Charter was developed under the authority of the Moscow Declaration: Statement on Atrocities
Moscow Declaration

The Moscow Declaration was signed during the Moscow Conference on October 30 1943. The formal name of the declaration was "Declaration of the Four Nations on General Security"....
, which was agreed at the Moscow Conference (1943)
Moscow Conference (1943)

The Third Moscow Conference between the major Allies of World War II of World War II took place from October 18 to November 11 1943, at the Moscow Kremlin and Spiridonovka Palace....
. It was drawn up in London, following the surrender of Germany on VE Day. It was drafted by Robert H. Jackson
Robert H. Jackson

Robert Houghwout Jackson was United States Attorney General and an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of the Supreme Court of the United States ....
, Robert Falco
Robert Falco

Robert Falco was a France judge during the Nuremberg trials after World War II. He was one of the main authors of the London Charter of the International Military Tribunal....
, and Iona Nikitchenko
Iona Nikitchenko

Major-General Iona Timofeevich Nikitchenko was a judge of the Soviet Union.Nikitchenko presided over some of the most notorious of Stalin's show trials during the Great Purges of 1936 to 1938, where he among other things sentenced Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev....
 of the European Advisory Commission
European Advisory Commission

The formation of the European Advisory Commission was agreed on at the Moscow Conference on October 30 1943 between the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, Anthony Eden, the United States, Cordell Hull, and the Soviet Union, Vyacheslav Molotov, and confirmed at the Tehran Conference in November....
, and issued on August 8 1945.

The Charter and its definition of crimes against peace was also the basis of the Finnish
Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland , is a Nordic countries situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland....
 law, approved by the Finnish parliament
Parliament of Finland

The Eduskunta , or the Riksdag , is the Parliament of Finland. The Unicameralism parliament has 200 members and meets in Parliament House in Helsinki....
 on 11 September 1945, that enabled the war-responsibility trials in Finland
War-responsibility trials in Finland

The war-responsibility trials in Finland was a trial of the Finland wartime leaders held responsible for "definitely influencing Finland in getting into a war with the Soviet Union and United Kingdom in 1941 or preventing peace" during the Continuation War, 1941-1944....
.

See also

  • Cases before the International Criminal Court
    Cases before the International Criminal Court

    As of March 2009, the International Criminal Court has launched investigations into four situations: Northern Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic and Darfur ....
  • Carl Schmitt
    Carl Schmitt

    Carl Schmitt was a Germany jurist, political theorist, and professor of law.Schmitt published several essays, influential in the 20th century and beyond, on the mentalities that surround the effective wielding of political power....
  • Command responsibility
    Command responsibility

    Command responsibility, sometimes referred to as the Yamashita standard or the Medina standard, is the doctrine of hierarchical accountability in cases of war crimes....
  • Crime against humanity
    Crime against humanity

    Crimes against humanity, as defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Explanatory Memorandum, "are particularly odious offences in that they constitute a serious attack on human dignity or grave humiliation or a degradation of one or more human beings....
  • Crime against peace
    Crime against peace

    A crime against peace, in international law, refers to "planning, preparation, initiation, or waging of War of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoing" ....
  • Crimina juris gentium
  • Geneva Conventions
    Geneva Conventions

    The Geneva Conventions consist of four treaties formulated in Geneva, Switzerland, that set the standards for international law for humanitarian concerns....
  • Genocide
    Genocide

    Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group.While precise genocide definitions, a legal definition is found in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide ....
  • International humanitarian law
    International humanitarian law

    International humanitarian law , often referred to as the laws of war, the laws and customs of war or the law of armed conflict, is the legal corpus "comprised of the Geneva Conventions and the Hague Conventions , as well as subsequent treaties, case law, and customary international law." It defines the conduct and responsib...
  • International Law
    International law

    Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of states and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond domestic legal interpretation and enforcement....
  • Jus ad bellum
    Jus ad bellum

    Jus ad bellum are a set of criteria that are consulted before engaging in war, in order to determine whether entering into war is justifiable....
  • Jus in bello
  • List of war crimes
    List of war crimes

    This article lists and summarizes war crimes committed since the Hague Conventions %281899 and 1907%29#Hague Convention of 1907. In addition, those incidents which have been judged in a court of justice to be crime against peace that have been committed since these crimes were first defined are also included....
  • Nuremberg Principles
    Nuremberg Principles

    The Nuremberg Principles were a set of guidelines for determining what constitutes a war crime. The document was created by necessity during the Nuremberg Trials of Nazism party members following World War II....
  • Peace Palace
    Peace Palace

    The Peace Palace , situated in The Hague, Netherlands, is often called the seat of international law because it houses the International Court of Justice , the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the Hague Academy of International Law, and the extensive Peace Palace Library....
  • War crimes
  • War Crimes Act of 1996
    War Crimes Act of 1996

    The War Crimes Act of 1996 was passed with overwhelming majorities by the United States Congress and signed into law by President of the United States Bill Clinton....
  • Nuremberg Principles
    Nuremberg Principles

    The Nuremberg Principles were a set of guidelines for determining what constitutes a war crime. The document was created by necessity during the Nuremberg Trials of Nazism party members following World War II....
  • Nuremberg Trials
    Nuremberg Trials

    The Nuremberg Trials were a series of trials, or tribunals, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of Nazi Germany after its defeat in World War II....
  • Pre-Nuremberg history of "I was just following orders"
    Superior Orders

    Superior Orders is, in essence, the plea that a soldier not be held guilty for crimes committed during the course of war due to the orders of a superior officer.....


External links

  • Links to the International Conference on Military Trials : London, 1945. These documents helps to shows how the Charter reached its final form:
    • June 14, 1945 contained in the Avalon Project
      Avalon Project

      The Avalon Project is the name of Yale Law School's digital library of Documents relating to Law, History and Diplomacy.The project contains online electronic copies of documents dating back over the past two thousand years and so it possible to study the original text of not only very famous documents such as Magna Carta, The English Bill...
       archive at Yale Law School
      Yale Law School

      Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1843, the school offers the Juris Doctor, Master of Laws, Doctor of Laws#United States, and Master of Studies in Law degrees in law....
      .
    • June 28, 1945. contained in the Avalon Project
      Avalon Project

      The Avalon Project is the name of Yale Law School's digital library of Documents relating to Law, History and Diplomacy.The project contains online electronic copies of documents dating back over the past two thousand years and so it possible to study the original text of not only very famous documents such as Magna Carta, The English Bill...
       archive at Yale Law School
      Yale Law School

      Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1843, the school offers the Juris Doctor, Master of Laws, Doctor of Laws#United States, and Master of Studies in Law degrees in law....
      .
  • contained in the Avalon Project
    Avalon Project

    The Avalon Project is the name of Yale Law School's digital library of Documents relating to Law, History and Diplomacy.The project contains online electronic copies of documents dating back over the past two thousand years and so it possible to study the original text of not only very famous documents such as Magna Carta, The English Bill...
     archive at Yale Law School
    Yale Law School

    Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1843, the school offers the Juris Doctor, Master of Laws, Doctor of Laws#United States, and Master of Studies in Law degrees in law....
  • contained in the Avalon Project
    Avalon Project

    The Avalon Project is the name of Yale Law School's digital library of Documents relating to Law, History and Diplomacy.The project contains online electronic copies of documents dating back over the past two thousand years and so it possible to study the original text of not only very famous documents such as Magna Carta, The English Bill...
     archive at Yale Law School
    Yale Law School

    Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1843, the school offers the Juris Doctor, Master of Laws, Doctor of Laws#United States, and Master of Studies in Law degrees in law....
    , contains the stated expansion of customary law "the Convention Hague 1907
    Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907)

    The Hague Conventions were international treaty negotiated at the First and Second Peace Conferences at The Hague, Netherlands in 1899 and 1907, respectively, and were, along with the Geneva Conventions, among the first formal statements of the laws of war and war crimes in the nascent body of secular international law....
     expressly stated that it was an attempt 'to revise the general laws and customs of war,' which it thus recognised to be then existing, but by 1939 these rules laid down in the Convention were recognised by all civilised nations, and were regarded as being declaratory of the laws and customs of war which are referred to in Article 6 (b) of the Charter."