Retroactive Law and Proactive Justice: Debating Crimes against Humanity in Germany, 1945–1950

2010 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 428-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Devin O. Pendas
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
International Law ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
World War ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Domestic Courts ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of International Law

The Nuremberg Trial may well be the most famous trial of the twentieth century, which is as it should be. After all, the Nuremberg Trial, while perhaps not as unprecedented as is frequently assumed, did mark a decisive turning point in the history of international law. It marked the first broadly successful attempt to impose the rule of law not just on the conduct of war but also, in a limited way, on domestic atrocities as well. The fame of this single trial has had the unfortunate side-effect of overshadowing the literally thousands of other Nazi trials that took place after World War II, however. These additional trials can be divided into three categories: those that took place in the domestic courts of victim nations, those that took place in occupation courts, and, perhaps least well-known, those that took place inGermancourts.

History of International Law and Western Civilization

2007 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 353-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gustavo Gozzi
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
International Law ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
China And Japan ◽  
History Of International Law ◽  
The 19Th Century

AbstractThis paper discusses the origins 19th-century international law through the works of such scholars as Bluntschli, Lorimer, and Westlake, and then traces out its development into the 20th century. Nineteenth-century international law was forged entirely in Europe: it was the expression of a European consciousness and culture, and was geographically located within the community of European peoples, which meant a community of Christian, and hence "civilized," peoples. It was only toward the end of the 19th century that an international law emerged as the expression of a "global society," when the Ottoman Empire, China, and Japan found themselves forced to enter the regional international society revolving around Europe. Still, these nations stood on an unequal footing, forming a system based on colonial relations of domination. This changed in the post–World War II period, when a larger community of nations developed that was not based on European dominance. This led to the extended world society we have today, made up of political systems profoundly different from one another because based on culture-specific concepts. So in order for a system to qualify as universal, it must now draw not only on Western but also on non-Western forms, legacies, and concepts.

The Law of Nations in Global History

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. H. Alexandrowicz
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Global History ◽  
Law Of Nations ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Law ◽  
History Of International Law ◽  
Regional Histories ◽  
International Rule

In recent years there has been a growing awareness of the need to write a global history of law of nations that disengages from parochial national and regional histories. It is hoped that these developments will bring centre-stage the work of Charles Henry Alexandrowicz (1902–75), a scholar who was among the first to conceptualize the history of international law as that of intersecting histories of different regions of the world. Alexandrowicz was aware that, while the idea of writing a global history of law of nations is liberating, there is no guarantee that it will not become the handmaiden of contemporary and future imperial projects. What were needed were critical global histories that provincialize established Eurocentric historiographies and read them alongside other regional histories. This book aims to make Alexandrowicz’s writings more widely available and read. The Introduction to this book sums up the context, issues, problems, and questions that engaged Alexandrowicz, as well as some of his central theses. His writings are a gold mine waiting to be explored. Alexandrowicz contributed to the effort of promoting the idea of international rule of law by rejecting a Eurocentric history and theory of international law.

The Historical Development of Crimes against Humanity and Jurisprudence of the Rwanda, Former Yugoslavia, and Sierra Leone Tribunals

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tilman Rodenhäuser
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
International Law ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
World War ◽  
Post World War Ii

Chapter 8 analyses post-World War II jurisprudence, national jurisprudence, the International Law Commission’s work, and International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) jurisprudence regarding what types of non-state entities might be involved in crimes against humanity. It argues that while the Nuremberg Charter and post-World War II jurisprudence, including national jurisprudence, were focused on state crimes, state involvement has rarely been considered a legal element of crimes against humanity. This is also evident in the International Law Commission’s work. This chapter analyses how the three abovementioned international(ized) tribunals addressed the question of non-state entity involvement in crimes against humanity and argues that the ICTY and the SCSL did not limit entities behind crimes against humanity to abstract ‘state-like entities’, but primarily considered whether the group in question had the capacity to commit the crimes.

Coercion, Internalization, Decolonization

2019 ◽  
pp. 66-89
Author(s):  
Felix Lange
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
International Law ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Contextual Approach ◽  
World War ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of International Law ◽  
Historical Writings ◽  
Second World

The chapter discusses competing narratives of ‘rise’ and ‘decline’ of international law in the historical writings of international lawyers and historians. The author proposes a contextual approach to the history of international law which takes the terminology of the actors of the past seriously, but also leaves room for an assessment of functional equivalents. The author applies his contextual approach to the story of international law’s universalization. He claims that from the seventeenth century, European international law universalized via processes of forceful coercion by Western powers, internalization through non-Western states, and decolonization after the Second World War.

2. The Historical Evolution of the International Community

2020 ◽  
pp. 20-44
Author(s):  
Paola Gaeta ◽  
Jorge E. Viñuales ◽  
Salvatore Zappalà
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Law ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Historical Evolution ◽  
World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
Independent States ◽  
History Of International Law ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter traces the historical evolution of the international legal system, which is organized for analytical purposes in four major stages: from its gradual emergence (sixteenth–early seventeenth century) to the First World War; from the establishment of the League of Nations to the end of the Second World War (1919–1945); from the establishment of the United Nations to the end of the Cold War (1945–1989); and the last three decades since the end of the Cold War (1990–2020). The chapter emphasizes the European roots of international law but also the pressure it has faced since the 1960s to reflect the interests of developing and newly independent States. It also provides some basic historical elements and references to the growing literature on the history of international law, which are useful to understand the historical context of the material examined in subsequent chapters.

scholarly journals Museum Course and Archaeology in Belgrade during the World War II

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 625
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Bandović
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Practical Training ◽  
History Of Archaeology ◽  
World War ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Heritage Protection ◽  
Post War ◽  
New Institutions

The museum course in the Museum of Prince Paul in Belgrade lasted from 1942 to 1944, initiated by Miodrag Grbić, one of the curators of the Museum. The whole generation of the post-war archaeologists, art historians, and architects stemmed from the lectures of Miodrag Grbić, Đorđe Mano Zisi, Milan Kašanin and Ivan Zdravković. The course became the turning point in the history of archaeology, a sort of parallel university in the occupied city. However, it should not be valorised isolated from other events in Belgrade during the World War II. The German authorities established new institutions in charge of heritage protection in the occupied Serbia – Kunst und Denkmalschutz, the department chaired by Baron Johann von Reiswitz. Himmler’s organization Ahnenerbe was also active in the region of Belgrade and Serbia. As part of its activities, Wilhelm Unverzagt, the director of the Berlin museum conducted the excavations at Kalemegdan. These excavations symbolically legitimized the German presence in Belgrade. On the other hand, the project became one of the topoi of the ideology of collaborationism. The students of the museum course acquired their practical training during these excavations.

Legal State is the Goal of the Rule of Law

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 109-130
Author(s):  
V.V. Ershov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Legal Positivism ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Word Combination ◽  
History Of Development ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Right ◽  
Legal Understanding

Introduction. The term “legal state” can be found in numerous international and national legal instruments, as well as in the works of contemporary scholars and scholars of previous generations. This word combination is widely used by politicians and lawyers. Its various applications dictate the need for a definition of the essence of the “rule of law” and its manifestations. Theoretical Basis. Methods. From the position of scientifically grounded concept of integrative legal understanding, according to which only principles and norms of law contained in a single, multilevel and developing system of national and international law forms implemented in the state, the article concludes that it is theoretically debatable that in the special literature, international and national legal documents and legal acts two separate concepts of “rule of law” and “legal state” exist. Results. The notion of the rule of law has a long history of development. In the relevant context, the concept appeared as early as in the writings of Plato and Aristotle. At present, there are also many scientific works devoted to the study of this issue, which is still relevant. The article analyses the notion of the “rule of law” from the perspective of legal positivism as well as the scientifically grounded and scientifically debatable concept of integrative legal understanding. Based on the results of the study, the author concludes that the concept of “the rule of law” has evolved in different historical epochs under the influence of social, economic factors, emerging scientific views, but is still incomplete. From the perspective of the scientifically based concept of an integrative legal understanding, the author believes that it is theoretically more reasonable to view the rule of law as the goal of regulating legal relations in a legal state, self-limited not only by “internal” law, but also limited by “external” law. Discussion and Conclusion. Concepts of the rule of law according to the types of legal understanding of the researchers can be classified into concepts developed on the basis of: legal positivism (‘thin’ concepts; scientifically debatable concepts of integrative legal understanding, arguably synthesising both the right and the wrong); scientifically substantiated concepts of integrative legal understanding. According to the latter approach, a valid legal state is not only self-limited by “internal” law, but is also limited by “external” law, and theoretically more precisely by the principles and norms of law contained in a single, evolving and multilevel system of national and international law forms.

Carl Schmitt, April 1939: „Der Reichsbegriff im Völkerrecht“

Der Staat ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 455-472
Author(s):  
Dirk Blasius
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
International Law ◽  
World View ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
Causal Connection ◽  
World War ◽  
European Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Total State ◽  
Second World

Der Artikel rekonstruiert die Geschichte von Carl Schmitts Reichsbegriff. Die historische Situation im Frühjahr 1939 hatte Einfluss auf den Weg seines juristischen Werks. Der Reichsbegriff war Thema eines Vortrags, den Schmitt in das Zentrum seiner „Völkerrechtlichen Großraumordnung“ stellte. Diese im April 1939 erschienene Publikation wurde nach Ausbruch des Krieges mehrfach ergänzt. Der Abschnitt zum Reichsbegriff blieb unverändert. Schmitt unterstützte mit seinen Beiträgen zum Völkerrecht den aggressiven Weg der NS-Politik, der zum Ausbruch des Krieges im September 1939 führte. In einem Essay vom Mai 1939 über das Reich und den Untergang der europäischen Kultur zitierte er frühere Veröffentlichungen. Sie hatten ihn zu einem neuen völkerrechtlichen Gedanken geführt. Reiche, nicht Staaten sollten Träger des Völkerrechts sein. An diesem Gedanken hielt Schmitt auch während des Krieges fest. Sein Essay ist ein Selbstportrait des Juristen Schmitt. Seine Gegner erhoben den Vorwurf mangelhafter Weltanschauung. Sie forderten eine „völkische Großraumordnung“. Im Zweiten Weltkrieg schloss sich Schmitt nicht Ereignissen an, die der Ideologie vom „Lebensraum“ Taten folgen ließen. Mit dem Begriff „Ereignisse“ wurden 1941/42 Kriegsverbrechen in den „Ereignismeldungen UdSSR“ benannt. Die Stäbe des „Reichssicherheitshauptamts“ werteten sie aus. Schmitt ließ den Zusammenhang dieser Verbrechen mit dem Typus des totalen Staats unbeachtet. The article reconstructs the history of Carl Schmitt's concept of the Reich. The historical situation in the spring of 1939 had an influence on the path of his legal work. The concept of empire was the subject of a lecture that Schmitt placed at the center of his “Völkerrechtliche Großraumordnung”. This publication, which appeared in April 1939, was supplemented several times after the outbreak of World War II. The section on the concept of empire remained unchanged. Schmitt's contributions to international law supported the aggressive course of Nazi policy before September 1939. In a May 1939 essay on the Reich and the Decline of European Culture, he cited earlier publications. They had led him to a new idea of the causal connection between empires and international law. Schmitt held on to it even during the war. His essay is a self-portrait of the jurist Schmitt. His opponents raised the accusation of a deficient world view (Weltanschauung). They demanded a "völkische Großraumordnung". In the Second World War, Schmitt did not join events (Ereignisse) that gave action to the ideology of Lebensraum. The term "Ereignisse" was used in 1941/42 to name war crimes in the "Ereignismeldungen UdSSR". The staffs of the Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt) evaluated them. Schmitt ignored the connection of these crimes with the type of the total state.

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