INTRODUCTORY NOTE. Under General Assembly Resolution 177 (II), Paragraph (a), the International Law Commission was directed to "formulate the principles of international law recognized in the Charter of Nuremberg Tribunal and in the judgement of the Tribunal." In the course of the consideration of this subject the question arose as to whether or not the Commission should ascertain to what extent the principles contained in the Charter and judgement constituted principles of international law. The conclusion was that since the Nuremberg principles had been affirmed by the General Assembly, the task entrusted to the Commission was not to express any appreciation of these principles as principles of international law but merely to formulate them. The text below was adopted by the Commission at its second session. The Report of the Commission also contains commentaries on the principles (see Yearbook of the International Law Commission 1950, Vol. II, pp. 374 - 378).
TEXT PUBLISHED IN: Report of the International Law Commission Covering its Second Session, 5 June - 29 July 1950, Document A/1316; Yearbook of the International Law Commission 1950, Vol. II, pp. 374 - 380.
PRINCIPLE I
Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international
law is responsible therefor and liable to punishment.
PRINCIPLE II
The fact that international law does not impose a penalty for an act which
constitutes a crime under international law does not relieve the person who
committed the act from responsibility under international law.
PRINCIPLE III
The fact that a person who committed an act which constitutes a crime under
international law acted as Head of State or responsible Government official
does not relieve him from responsibility under international law.
PRINCIPLE IV
The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior
does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral
choice was in fact possible to him.
PRINCIPLE V
Any person charged with a crime under international law has a right to a fair
trial on the facts and law.
PRINCIPLE VI
The crimes hereinafter set out are punishable as crimes under international law:
(a) Crimes against peace:
(i) Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances;(b) War crimes:
(ii) Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the acts mentioned under (i).Violations of the laws or customs of war which include, but are not limited to, murder, ill treatment or deportation to slave-labour or for any other purpose of civilian population of, or in occupied territory, murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war, of persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity.
(c) Crimes against humanity:
Murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation and other inhumane acts done against any civilian population, or persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds, when such acts are done or such persecutions are carried on in execution of, or in connection with any crime against peace or any war crime."
PRINCIPLE VII
Complicity in the commission of a crime against peace, a war crime, or
a crime against humanity as set forth in Principle VI is a crime under international
law.
IPB
in collaboration with
IALANA
Peace Union of Finland
Finnish Lawyers for Peace and Survival
ISBN 951-9193-40-5