Evening star., 1946-10-01
Judgment at Nuremberg


lawyers may raise technical objec-
tions to it. but still the judgment
handed down by the international
Military Tribunal at Nuremberg now
passes into history as precedent
whose potentialities are such that
future generations may come to
celebrate it as shining landmark
in the moral development Of man
kind and in mankind's desperate
striving for good and enduring
peace.
In a narrow sense, of course, 1t is
true that this is a judgment passed
by the victors upon the vanquiShed
"a fact that has given rise to the
shallow fippancy that Nuernberg's
chief lesson is that it is best not to
lose wars. 1t is true, too, that the
members of the court-notably Rus
sia-are open to at least the suspi-
cion of being guilty themselves of
some of the very acts for which the
NdIl0 4ldNC DCCii SOI1uCAn1ASA, NAAo
this has the appearance Of moral
inconsistency. Similarly, although
believing that Goering and his group
merit the most drastic punishment,
more than a few observers have
been disturbed by the ex post facto
character of the proceedings-pro-
ceedings based upon a four power
decision to try these men for a
crime (the crime of aggression), for
which no specific punishment existed
in international law until the four
powers themselves called it into
being after the evil had been done.
It would be superficial. however.
to let considerations Of this sort
obscure the historic meaning Of the
judgment at Nuremberg. As was
made clear long ago by Supreme
Court Justice Robert H. Jackson,
chief American prosecutor at the
trial, the fact that the victors have
done the Judging has had, at most,
only an inconsequential and Incl
dental bearing on the proceedings,
and much the same may be said of
whatever inconsistencies may exist
between the past acts of the nation
judges and the principle they have
espoused. AS for the legalistic aspects
of the case, the Nuremberg tribunal
has fully affirmed MIR. Jackson's
thesis that international law is not
a static and immutable thing. that
it must adapt itself to the needs of
a changing world. that peoples and
governments must periodically en-
large upon it, and that "our own day
has it's right to institute customs
and to conclude agreements that
will themselves become sources of a
newer and strengthened interna-
tional law"
BY the simple device of a summary
trial and swift execution after We
day, the victors could have avoided
the immense labors of Nuremberg.
Instead, bending over backwards to
be just to the accused, studying
mountains of documents and hear
ing millions and millions of words of
testimony, they deliberately set out
to break new ground and contribute
to the law of nations by placing on
trial the remnants of a government
and by establishing. through that
trial, the principle that the plotting
and waging of aggressive war is
an enormous crime A"the supreme
crime"-against humanity and that
the guilty must be made to pay
for it.
The evidence brought out against
Goering and his group is over
whelmingly convincing proof of the
Nervousness of their deeds. But the
tribunal has done more than pass
Judgment against men broken by
their own wickedness; it has passed
judgment against the old idea that
war, any kind Of war, can be waged
and its wagers enjoy personal i'm
munity. The nation-judges have
addressed themselves primarily to
history. They have said to history
that "the supreme crime" encom-.
passing all crimes, can no longer be
tolerated by mankind and that the
leadership of governments guilty of
it must be dealt with as criminals
as thieves and murderers.
To establish this as principle, to
act upon it as it has now been
acted upon, does not put an end to
the evil at issue BuG it does this
much: It presents to the world
fresh concept, and as time goes on
that concept may we'll acquire
enough positive force, moral and
otherwise, to give pause to would-be
aggressors. At very least, it strength
ems international law, and it thus
significantly serves the cause of
peace, for the greater the rule of
law, the better the chance of avert
ing future wars. Ife the victors
themselves live up to It, the prec-
edent set at Nuremberg will in fact
be one of the great landmarks of
history.