Nuremberg principles

The Nuremberg principles are rules of international criminal law affirming individual responsibility for crimes under international law, including crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

Individual criminal responsibility: The principle that individuals, not only states or organizations, can incur criminal liability under international law. This is the central shift from state responsibility to personal liability.
International Military Tribunal: The Allied tribunal that tried major German leaders in Nuremberg from 1945 to 1946. Its judgment supplied the immediate legal basis for formulating the principles.
Genocide Convention: The 1948 treaty requiring states to prevent and punish genocide. Its adoption extended postwar efforts to define and prosecute international crimes.
Act of state doctrine: A legal doctrine under which courts may refrain from judging the validity of another state’s official acts. Nuremberg liability challenged the idea that official state action shields individuals from prosecution.
Crimes against peace: The planning, preparation, initiation, or waging of an aggressive war, as defined at Nuremberg. Nuremberg treated aggressive war as an offense attributable to political and military leaders.
Nuremberg Charter: The 1945 agreement establishing the International Military Tribunal and defining its jurisdiction and procedures. Its categories of crimes framed the tribunal’s application of individual responsibility.
Geneva Conventions: The 1949 treaties establishing protections for people affected by armed conflict. Their grave-breach provisions developed the prosecution of serious violations of humanitarian law.
Immunity ratione personae: Personal immunity from foreign criminal jurisdiction enjoyed by certain serving senior state officials. It raises questions about how personal immunity interacts with international criminal accountability.
War crimes: Serious violations of the laws and customs of war that entail individual criminal responsibility. The principles reaffirmed that battlefield violations could be prosecuted as international crimes.
Nuremberg Trials: Postwar prosecutions in Nuremberg of German leaders and other defendants for Nazi-era crimes. The trials tested the principles through prosecutions of political, military, and institutional actors.

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