Suchergebnisse

Shortly after termination of the now historic Nuremberg trial of Nazi Germany's arch war criminals, formal proceedings were instituted against several other classes of major offenders against the laws of war in Western Europe. This second phase of the program included war crimes committed in S.S. laboratories, in the name of medical experimentation, and the socalled "economic" war crimes. Simultaneously with these proceedings preparations were made for still a third class of offenders to be brought to international justice, and it is this group which has recently been indicted. Here the charges are predicated upon illegal activity of enemy nationals engaged in administering justice in territories under military occupation, frequently involving the execution of inhabitants after a summary hearing, or after no trial at all. For the international lawyer this third category of war crimes contains many stimulating and significant elements. It raises highly challenging questions as to the extent to which criminal responsibility may be held to exist in cases where enemy nationals performing functions of a judicial or a quasi-judicial character have participated in the pronouncement and execution of sentences, including the death penalty, against nationals of the occupied areas.

At the Third Conference of the Inter-American Bar Association held in Mexico City during July–August, 1944, a sub-committee of the Committee on Post-War Problems proposed a draft resolution relative to the diplomatic protection of citizens abroad which, if ever officially accepted by the American Republics, would erase as between those countries all of the existing international law on the subject. The resolution urged, first of all, that "diplomatic protection of citizens abroad" be abolished in favor of an international protection of the rights of man.

At head of title: 84th Cong., 2d sess. Committee print. ; Mode of access: Internet.