Although they were not without precedent, the Allied trials of war criminals at Nuremberg and elsewhere represented new legal principles and extensions of existing legal principles in an attempt to create new, higher standards of behavior in future conflicts. Even though aggressive wars and atrocities still occur, the principles of Nuremberg may be seen to be "taking root" in the modern world, to the extent that there is now an expectation that investigation and trial of atrocities and war crimes should take place, even if the application of these principles is still relatively inconsistent.

Demands for the punishment of the military and political leaders of Germany and Japan, as well as for soldiers who committed specific war crimes, had been building throughout the war. While the concept of trying soldiers for specific war crimes had been established in international law and especially by the Hague Rules of Land War

In the actual conduct of the trial, all eleven nations participated in the decisions of the prosecution, which again provided some inefficiencies and inconsistencies. 28 defendants were assembled, "who had all, with two exceptions, occupied the highest government and military posts between 1928 and 1945," including four former Prime Ministers, and most memorably the wartime Prime Minister Hidoki Tojo (Piccigallo, 1979, p. 14). The trial lasted from May 1946 until April 1948, and the deliberations of the Tribunal lasted another seven months; two defendants died during the trial and another was ruled mentally unfit. American and Japanese defense lawyers made vigorous presentations, raising all the disputed points of international law, making the case that Japan's behavior was not especially different than that of the Allied nations, and, led by Tojo who accepted full responsibility for this actions, argued that Japan had acted in self-defense against American economic blockade and unreasonable demands. Nevertheless, in a judgment over 1,000 pages long, the Tribunal found itself competent to try crimes including aggressive warfare, found that Japan had violated treaties and international law by waging such war, and found all 25 remaining defendants guilty on one or more charges (though many were acquitted of specific charges). Tojo, another former Prime Minister and five generals were sentenced to death. One judge, however, withheld his vote on the grounds that the trial procedures were flawed, while the judge appointed by India essentially sided with the defense in voting to acquit all counts, on the grounds that international law had not been established, that the court was acting ex post facto and that the trials represented "victors' justice." The US Supreme Court heard on appeal from two defendants who argued the Tribunal was essentially an American court, but this was denied and the sentences were carried out at the end of 1948 (Piccigallo, 1979, pp. 21-33).

fare Treaty of 1907, there was much uncertainty in legal circles about trying enemy leaders for atrocities against their own populations, such as Germany's slaughter of the Jews. There was also doubt about many other legal points such as applying international law to individuals, or trying enemy leaders for aggression. In particular, the precedence set following World War I was not encouraging nor. An attempt to try Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany had failed when the Dutch government refused to turn him over to the allies, on the grounds that he was being charged with political crimes which were not in Dutch law (Woetzel, 1962, pp. 22-31; Taylor, 1971, pp. 21-24, 66-7; Piccigallo, 1979, pp. 3-4). Perhaps more damaging was the failure of the British to try a handful of Turks believed guilty of the massacre of nearly one million Armenians in 1915. Although there effort extended into 1921, they ultimately turned the 36 accused Turks over to Kemal Ataturk's nationalist government in exchange for a few hostage British soldiers. (The Economist, July 19th, 1997, pp.45)

The prosecution was hampered by a lack of coordination between four national teams handling different aspects of the case, and public interest quickly waned as the prosecutors focused on dry documents in trying to establish that Germany waged an aggressive war, at a time when public opinion in Europe was clamoring for justice after years of Nazi oppression an atrocities, whose full scale was only then coming to light. The prosecution was also hampered by its ignorance of the German language and German history; the defense lawyers were unfamiliar with the Anglo-American adversary system of justice, and the defendants often slept through the sessions. The chief American prosecutor was criticized for many aspects of his handling of the trial, and Goering in particular was able to confuse the prosecutors with his replies to their questions. The most serious charge against the conduct of the trial w

Some common words found in the essay are:
Supreme Court, Control Council, SS Staff, Telford Taylor, Nazi Party, American Japanese, York Times, Wilhelm Germany, Crimes Commission, Nuremberg Trial, international law, war crimes, aggressive war, piccigallo 1979, woetzel 1962, 1962 pp, smith 1982, criminal organizations, woetzel 1962 pp, war criminals, smith 1977 pp, allied nations, piccigallo 1979 pp, smith 1982 pp, 1945 quoted smith,
Approximate Word count = 2771
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)