The First Nuremberg Trial: Between Legality and Justice

Abstract

The first Nuremberg trial, held between 1945 and 1946, represented an unprecedented event in the history of international law, as it arose from the need to respond to the crimes committed by the Nazi regime after World War II and to establish individual responsibility for atrocities that had exceeded the framework of traditional law. Driven by the Allied powers—United States, United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union—the tribunal introduced novel categories such as crimes against humanity and crimes against peace, laying the foundations for subsequent international tribunals and, decades later, for the International Criminal Court. Nevertheless, its legitimacy has been the subject of controversy: while it is recognized as a decisive step toward the consolidation of international criminal law, it has also been criticized for having been a trial of victors against the vanquished, in which the Allies judged the defeated without subjecting themselves to scrutiny. The legality of punishing conduct that had not been previously codified was also questioned, which strained the principle of non-retroactivity in criminal law. Consequently, Nuremberg was simultaneously an innovative act of justice and a complex political exercise, whose legacy continues to influence the debate on international justice.