The Legacy of Nuremberg

Belinda Cooper

The world has been stunned in recent years by concentration camps in Bosnia and the slaughter of millions in Rwanda. For the firrst time since the historic trials at Nuremberg, the in ternational community has reacted collectively to pursue and try those responsible for these horrific crimes. As the issue of guilt remains front-page news, War Crimes: The Legacy of Nuremberg, featuring essays by lawyers, journalists, and policy experts, examines the significance of the Nuremberg trials and the influence they exert over international justice today. Instead of responding with brute revenge to the Nazi atrocities, the Allies introduced a novel concept to humankind: a war crimes tribunal based on the rule of law. The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg was founded on the idea of individual legal accountability for crimes committed in wartime. It was, as Prosecutor Robert jaqckson said at Nuremberg, “One of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason”. The ensuing Cold War interrupted attempts to develop further mechanisms for prosecuting violations of these norms. But with the Cold War's end, the United Nations took up the challenge once again, establishing international criminal tribunals to prosecute those suspected of committing wartime atrocities in former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. The United Nations is currently in the process of creating a permanent international criminal tribunal. War Crimes: The Legacy of Nuremberg brings together commentators from a variety of fields to discuss and contrast these tribunals and provide a much-needed framework for understanding them. Moving from the Nuremberg tribunal through today's tribunals to the proposed permanent court, the essays address both the mechanics of prosecuting international human rights violations and the more fundamental questions raised by the process. What are the goals of international war crimes trials? Do they allocate guilt? Ease the pain of the injured? Deter future atrocities? Or simply placate the conscience of a world incapable of finding political solutions to its conflicts? Are they the best way to move strife-torn socieites from violence to peace and reconciliation?

Table of Contents Foreword by Richard J. Goldstone Introduction p. 7 p. 11 Part I - Nuremberg: The Precedent Introduction Remembering Nuremberg - Bernard Meltzer Nuremberg: A Prosecutor's Perspective - Benjamin Ferencz A Call for Reasoned Justice - Stephen G. Breyer Nuremberg and Its Legacy, 50 Years Later - Ruti Teitel The Significance of Nuremberg - Edward M. Wise Nuremberg: A Cold War Conflict of Interest - Peter Maguire Nuremberg and the Germans - Jörg Friedrich A Half Century of Silence: The Politics of Law - Diane Orentlicher p. 17 p. 20 p. 32 p. 40 p. 44 p. 55 p. 67 p. 87 p. 107 Part II - The Legacy: The International Community Confronts War Crimes Introduction p. 115 The International Tribunals for Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda - Background and Process The Real Trial of the Century - William Horne Documenting Horror: The Administration of the Rwandan Genocide - Alison des Forges Internationalizing Civil War - Diane Orentlicher Rape Under International Law - Patricia Viseur-Sellers p. 120 p. 139 p. 154 p. 159 Why an International Tribunal? Analysis and Alternatives to International Adjudication War Crimes Trials: Who Should Do Them - and How - Neil Kritz Ethnicity and Conflict in Africa: The Methods Behind the Madness - Bill Berkeley Justice in the Wake of Genocide: Rwanda - Madeline Morris Only a War Crimes Tribunal: Triumph of the “International Communty”, Pain of the Survivors - Julie Mertus When Prosecution Is Not Possible: Alternative Means of Seeking Accountability for War Crimes - Tim Phillips & Mary Albon Suing for Genocide in the United States: The Case of Jane Doe v. Radovan Karadzic - Beth Stephens & Jennifer Green p. 168 p. 183 p. 211 p. 229 p. 244 p. 265 Part III - Nuremberg and Beyond Introduction Tipping the Scales of Justice - Tina Rosenberg The Nuremberg Legacy: Historical Assessment - Cherif Bassiouni Toward a Permanent International Criminal Court - Donna Axel Epilogue p. 275 p. 276 p. 291 p. 311 p. 323 Appendix The International Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia The International Tribunal for Rwanda Documentary Excerpts Contributors p. 331 p. 335 p. 338 p. 347