Newswise — Sixty years have passed since the beginning of the Nuremburg war trials that brought many of the Nazi war criminals to justice. But the international consensus around the concept of war crimes they achieved established a legal precedent that is still shaping the world today.
Dr. John Hepp, assistant professor of history at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, PA, says the 60th anniversary of the trials has particular relevance to modern day as dictators and warlords around the world are being brought to justice.
"To me, it's particularly timely because at the moment in the news, in addition to the 60th anniversary, Saddam is being tried," Hepp says. "And much of what he's being tried on is the international law prior to Nuremburg, but was really first applied at Nuremburg. And this whole CIA leak case, as we get more information on the U.S. invasion of Iraq, we're faced with the issue: did the U.S. violate international law?"
Hepp delves into these issues in the classes he teaches.
"Sort of my take on this, for my classes, throughout the 19th and first half of the 20th century, the U.S. was one of the leading champions of international law in the world," Hepp says. "Look at the first 30 years of the 20th century: the U.S. argued that 'Might did not make right."
During the last century, the U.S. has dramatically shifted from a country that required legal precedents in international affairs to a country that now acts unilaterally to achieve its goals.
Hepp says "one of the great ironies of Nuremburg" is that as the war trials were being set up, so were the United Nations. The U.S. had strong commitments to both the application of international law through the criminal court as well as toward the application of international law through an international organization.
"Sixty years later, the U.S. refuses to submit to the jurisdiction of the criminal world court," Hepp says. "It's a fascinating shift in American policy, going from leading spokesman of international law on all fronts in 1945, to sixty years later being somewhat of a pariah state when it comes to international law."
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