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Orientation: War Crimes Trials in Theory and Practice from the Middle Ages to the Present

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Book cover War Crimes Trials and Investigations

Part of the book series: St Antony's Series ((STANTS))

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Abstract

War crimes trials are not a recent phenomenon. Such trials can be traced back to at least the European Middle Ages. Yet, war crimes trials since 1945 are substantively different from earlier predecessors. This chapter traces the development of the laws of war and war crimes trials from the Middle Ages to the present day. It also offers an assessment of the justifications offered for holding war crimes trials—what they are intended to achieve and what they might actually accomplish. It argues that war crimes trials work best when they focus on procedural fairness and respect for the rule of law, rather than trying to teach broad political or historical lessons.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Stephen C. Neff, Justice among Nations: A History of International Law (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2014).

  2. 2.

    Stephen C. Neff, War and the Law of Nations: A General History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 10.

  3. 3.

    For Royal Ordinances, see Theodore Meron, War Crimes Law Comes of Age: Essays (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998), 1–2; for bilateral agreements on prisoners, see Gunther Rothenberg, “The Age of Napoleon,” in The Laws of War: Constraints on Warfare in the Western World, ed. Michael Howard, George J. Andreopoulos, and Mark R. Schulman (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), 89, 90.

  4. 4.

    Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, vol. 2 (New York: Benziger Brothers, 1947), 1360.

  5. 5.

    Neff, Justice among Nations, 69.

  6. 6.

    Ibid.

  7. 7.

    Aquinas, Summa Theologica, 1360.

  8. 8.

    Neff, 70.

  9. 9.

    Neff, War and the Law of Nations, 85.

  10. 10.

    Hugo Grotius, The Law of War and Peace, trans. Francis W. Kelsey (New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1925), 630.

  11. 11.

    Ibid., 631.

  12. 12.

    Ibid., 639.

  13. 13.

    Ibid., 644.

  14. 14.

    Ibid., 646, 648–649.

  15. 15.

    Neff, War and the Law of Nations, 86.

  16. 16.

    Grotius, Law of War and Peace, 565.

  17. 17.

    James Q. Whitman, The Verdict of Battle: The Law of Victory and the Making of Modern War (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2012), 189.

  18. 18.

    Ibid., 201.

  19. 19.

    Samuel Pufendorf, De Jure Naturae et Gentium Libri Octo, trans. C.H. and W.A. Oldfather (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1934), 1298.

  20. 20.

    Geoffrey Parker, Empire, War and Faith in Early Modern Europe (London: Penguin Press, 2002), 167–168.

  21. 21.

    For an important effort to undertake precisely such an investigation, which emphasizes the long-term persistence of an ‘outlawry doctrine’ that undergirds international criminal law throughout the post-Roman west, see Ziv Bohrer, “International Criminal Law’s Millennium of Forgotten History,” Law and History Review 34, no. 2 (May 2016): 393–485. Bohrer, like Parker, emphasizes the long-term continuity in international criminal law, going even further and tracing that continuity back to late antiquity. Obviously, the argument presented here stresses instead elements of discontinuity and rupture.

  22. 22.

    For a broader examination of these issues, see Jens Meierhenrich and Devin O. Pendas, “Political Trials in Theory and History,” in Political Trials, ed. Jens Meierhenrich and Devin Pendas (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016), 1–64.

  23. 23.

    Archibald Bower, History of the Popes, vol. 3 (Philadelphia: Griffith and Simon, 1845), 14; Pasquale Villari, The Two First Centuries of Florentine History, vol. 1 (London: Fisher Unwin, 1894), 248.

  24. 24.

    M. Cherif Bassiouni, Introduction to International Criminal Law (Dodrecht: Martinus-Nijhoff, 2012), 1047.

  25. 25.

    Karl Hampe, Geschichte Konradins von Hohenstaufen (Insbruck: Wagner, 1894), 312.

  26. 26.

    Richard Roth, Kaiser, King, and Pope, trans. Mary E. Ireland (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing, 1917), 189.

  27. 27.

    Friedrich von Raumer, Geschichte der Hohenstaufen und ihrer Zeit, vol. 4 (Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1878), 378.

  28. 28.

    Villari, Two First Centuries, 247.

  29. 29.

    Hampe, Geschichte Konradins, 311.

  30. 30.

    Bower , History of the Popes, 14.

  31. 31.

    Bassiouni, Introduction to International Criminal Law, 1047.

  32. 32.

    John Adair, “The Court Martial Papers of Sir William Waller’s Army, 1644,” Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research 44 (1966): 205–223.

  33. 33.

    Ibid., 218.

  34. 34.

    Ibid., 219.

  35. 35.

    Ibid., 220. Emphasis added.

  36. 36.

    Ibid., 215.

  37. 37.

    Ibid., 221.

  38. 38.

    Ibid., 221–222.

  39. 39.

    Trevor Royle, The British Civil War: The Wars of the Three Kingdoms, 1638–1660 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), 609.

  40. 40.

    John Nicoll, A Diary of Public Transactions and Other Occurrences, Chiefly in Scotland, from January 1650 to June 1667 (Edinburgh: The Bannatyne Club, 1836), 58

  41. 41.

    Ibid.

  42. 42.

    Cited in Godfrey Davies, “Introduction,” Dundee Court-Martial Records, 1651 in Miscellany of the Scottish History Society (Second Series), vol. 19 (Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press, 1919), 5.

  43. 43.

    Davies, “Introduction,” 5.

  44. 44.

    Ibid., 5–6.

  45. 45.

    See, e.g. Ibid., 33.

  46. 46.

    See, e.g. Ibid., 21, 35.

  47. 47.

    See, e.g. Ibid., 12.

  48. 48.

    See, e.g. Ibid., 14, 17.

  49. 49.

    There is one example of a soldier absent without leave, but he was also charged with theft. Ibid., 20.

  50. 50.

    Ibid., 42.

  51. 51.

    Ibid., 21–30.

  52. 52.

    Ibid., 23.

  53. 53.

    Ibid., 26.

  54. 54.

    Ibid., 43.

  55. 55.

    Ibid., 44.

  56. 56.

    Ibid., 45.

  57. 57.

    Ibid., 13.

  58. 58.

    Geoffrey Best, War and Law since 1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), 326.

  59. 59.

    John Fabian Witt, Lincoln’s Code: The Laws of War in American History (New York: Free Press, 2012).

  60. 60.

    Larry McMurtry, Custer (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012), 43

  61. 61.

    Peter Maguire, Law and War: An American Story (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001), 35.

  62. 62.

    Adam Roberts, “Land Warfare: From Hague to Nuremberg,” in Laws of War, 116.

  63. 63.

    Devin O. Pendas, ““The Magical Scent of the Savage”: Colonial Violence, the Crisis of Civilization and the Origins of the Legalist Paradigm of War,” The Boston College International and Comparative Law Review 30 (Winter 2007): 29–53.

  64. 64.

    Gerrit W. Gong, The Standard of ‘Civilization’ in International Society (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984).

  65. 65.

    Geoffrey Best, War and Law since 1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994).

  66. 66.

    Kathryn Sikkink, The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions are Changing World Politics (New York: W.W. Norton, 2011).

  67. 67.

    Benjamin N. Schiff, Building the International Criminal Court (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 167–181.

  68. 68.

    Ruti G. Teitel, Transitional Justice (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).

  69. 69.

    Yves Beigbeder, International Justice against Impunity: Progress and New Challenges (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff, 2005).

  70. 70.

    Sikkink, Justice Cascade, 262.

  71. 71.

    Ibid., 167.

  72. 72.

    Ibid., 169–174.

  73. 73.

    For my own scepticism about the general prospects for criminal prosecutions for mass violence, see Donald Bloxham and Devin O. Pendas, “Punishment as Prevention? The Politics of Prosecuting Génocidaires,” in The Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies, ed. Donald Bloxham and A. Dirk Moses (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 617–637.

  74. 74.

    Paradigmatically, see Jack L. Goldsmith and Eric Posner, The Limits of International Law (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006). For a critique of this ‘realist’ position, see Jens David Ohlin, The Assault on International Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015).

  75. 75.

    Raymond Aron, Peace and War: A Theory of International Relations (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2003), 51.

  76. 76.

    Goldsmith and Posner, Limits of International Law, 13.

  77. 77.

    Beth A. Simmons, Mobilizing for Human Rights: International Law in Domestic Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009).

  78. 78.

    John J. Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, updated ed. (New York: W.W. Norton, 2014).

  79. 79.

    For a recent overview, see Timothy Snyder, Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning (New York: Tim Duggan, 2015).

  80. 80.

    Ryan Liss and Joanna Langille, “It’s Not Just the Drought Treaty: In International Law, Canada Has Withered,” Globe and Mail, 29 March 2013. Accessed 5 September 2013, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/its-not-just-the-drought-treaty-in-international-law-canada-has-withered/article10549743/. It is as yet unclear whether the new Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, will reverse course.

  81. 81.

    Robert H. Bates, Prosperity and Violence: The Political Economy of Development (New York: W.W. Norton, 2001).

  82. 82.

    A.H. Feller, “We Move, Slowly, Toward World Law,” The New York Times, June 5, 1949, SM 10.

  83. 83.

    Teitel, Transitional Justice, 213.

  84. 84.

    Max Weber, Economy and Society, ed. Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978), 54.

  85. 85.

    Martha Minow, Between Vengeance and Forgiveness: Facing History after Genocide and Mass Violence (Boston: Beacon Press, 1998).

  86. 86.

    Tom Segev, The Seventh Million: The Israelis and the Holocaust (New York: Hill and Wang, 1993), 11.

  87. 87.

    Hannah Yablonka, The State of Israel vs. Adolf Eichmann (New York: Schocken, 2004), 120.

  88. 88.

    Regina Schmidt and Egon Becker, Reaktionen auf politische Vorgäge: Drei Meinungsstudien aus der Bundesrepublik, Frankfurter Beiträge zur Soziologie, vol. 19, with a preface by T. W. Adorno and L. V. Friedenburg (Frankfurt: Europäische Verlagsanstalt, 1967), 108.

  89. 89.

    Institut für Demoskopie, Verjährung von NS-Verbrechen. Ergebnisse einer Schnellumfrage (Allensbach am Bodensee: Institut für Demoskopie, 1965).

  90. 90.

    Anna J. and Richard L. Merritt eds., Public Opinion in Occupied Germany: The HICOG Surveys, 1949–1955 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1980), 11, 101.

  91. 91.

    The literature here is by now quite substantial. For a good starting place, see Norbert Frei, Vergangenheitspolitik: Die Anfänge der Bundesrepublik und die NS-Vergangenheit (Munich: C.H. Beck, 1996).

  92. 92.

    Adalbert Rückerl, NS-Verbrechen vor Gericht: Versuch einer Vergangenheitsbewältigung (Heidelberg: C.F. Müller Juristischer Verlag, 1984), 329.

  93. 93.

    Nicholas Balabkins, West German Reparations to Israel (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1971).

  94. 94.

    Pal published his dissent first in Calcutta in 1948. It remains in print in Japan today. See R.B. Pal, Dissenting Opinion of Justice R.B. Pal, Tokyo Tribunal (Tokyo: Kokusho-Kankokai, 1999). For Pal’s lingering influence, see e.g. Norimitsu Onishi, “Decades after War Trials, Japan Still Honors a Dissenting Judge,” New York Times, 31 August 2007.

  95. 95.

    See e.g. the debate, “Is the ICC targeting Africa inappropriately?” available at: http://iccforum.com/africa and John Mukum Mbaku, “International Justice: The International Criminal Court and Africa’ Brookings Institute,” Africa Growth Initiative (Working Paper). https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/03-foresight-international-criminal-court-africa-mbaku-1.pdf/

  96. 96.

    Judith N. Shklar, Legalism: Law, Morality, and Political Trials (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986[1964]), 1.

  97. 97.

    On German courts, see Ingo Müller, Furchtbare Juristen: Die unbewältigte Vergangenheit der deutschen Justiz (Munich: Kindler, 1987). For South Africa, see Jens Meierhenrich, Legacies of Law: Long-Run Consequences of Legal Development in South Africa, 1652–2000 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).

  98. 98.

    Ulrich Herbert, “Liberalisierung als Lernprozeß. Die Bundesrepublik in der deutschen Geschichte—eine Skizze,” in Wandlungsprozesse in Westdeutschland: Belastung, Integration, Liberalisierung 1945–1980, ed. Ulrich Herbert (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2002), 7–51.

  99. 99.

    I tell the full story of this effort and its consequences in Devin O. Pendas, “Retroactive Law and Proactive Justice: Debating Crimes against Humanity in Germany, 1945–1950,” Central European History 43 (September 2010): 428–463.

  100. 100.

    Oberlandesgerichtspräsident Celle Dr. Frhr. von Hodenberg to Herrn Oberlandesgerichtspräsident der britischen Zone, 3 October 1946, BAK, Z 21, Bd. 784, Bl. 23–24.

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    Devin O. Pendas

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Pendas, D.O. (2018). Orientation: War Crimes Trials in Theory and Practice from the Middle Ages to the Present. In: War Crimes Trials and Investigations. St Antony's Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64072-3_2

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