14 July 2023
The Nuremberg trials laid the groundwork for personal international criminal liability, and the process by which Vladimir Putin may one day be held responsible. In this week’s NLJ, Simon Parsons, associate lecturer at Bath Spa University, looks at the lack of individual liability for international crime before 1945.
Parsons outlines the history of attempts to hold war criminals accountable, before turning to some of the issues faced at the Nuremberg trials themselves, in the first of a two-part NLJ series on the individual under international criminal law. He sets out the defences and counters put forward at Nuremberg, including ‘superior orders’.
In the second half of this fascinating article, Parsons will consider how international criminal law is enforced today, and its potential application against Vladimir Putin and other Russian war criminals.
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