Nuremberg Principles
The principles of individual responsibility distilled from the Nuremberg trials
Overview
The 1945 to 1946 trial of the major Nazi organizations affirmed that individuals, including heads of state, bear criminal responsibility under international law, that superior orders are no complete defense, and that crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity are punishable. The UN legal committee codified these in 1950. They founded international criminal law, flowering in the tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and the Rome Statute. The trials remain the hinge between impunity and accountability. The tribunal sat under allied occupation law rather than treaty, a defect its successors cured by charter.
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