Nuremberg Trials - Creation of the court - Encyclopedia II

At the meetings in Tehran (1943), Yalta (1945) and Potsdam (1945), the three major wartime powers USA, USSR and Great Britain agreed on the format to punish those responsible for war-crimes during World War II. France was also awarded a place on the tribunal.

The legal basis for the trial was established by the 'London Charter', issued on August 8, 1945, which restricted the trial to "punishment of the major war criminals of the European Axis countries". Thus, accusations of Allied war crimes could not be tried. Some 200 German war crimes defendants were tried at Nuremberg, and 1,600 others were tried under the traditional channels of military justice. The legal basis for the jurisdiction of the court was that by the Instrument of Surrender of Germany, political authority for Germany had been transferred to the Allied Control Council which having sovereign power over Germany could choose to punish violations of international law and the laws of war. Because the court was limited to violations of the laws of war, it did not have jurisdiction over crimes that took place before the outbreak of war on September 1, 1939.

The Soviet Union had wanted the trials to take place in Berlin, but Nuremberg was chosen as the site for the trials for specific reasons:

• It was located in the American sector (at this time, Germany was divided into four sectors).
• The Palace of Justice was spacious and largely undamaged (one of the few that had remained largely intact through extensive Allied bombing of Germany). A large prison was also part of the complex.
• Because Nuremberg had been appointed "City of the party rallies", there was symbolic value in making it the place of the party's demise.

It was also agreed that Berlin would become the permanent seat of the IMT and that the first trial (several were planned) would take place in Nuremberg. Because of the Cold War, there were no subsequent trials.

Each of the four countries provided one judge and an alternate; and the prosecutors. The judges were:

• Geoffrey Lawrence (British main and president)
• Norman Birkett (British alternate)
• Francis Biddle (US main)
• John Parker (US alternate)
• Henri Donnedieu de Vabres (French main)
• Robert Falco (French alternate)
• Iona Nikitchenko (Russian main)
• Alexander Volchkov (Russian alternate)

The Chief prosecutors were Robert H. Jackson for the United States, Hartley Shawcross for the UK, General R. A. Rudenko for the Soviet Union, and François de Menthon and Auguste Champetier de Ribes for France. Assisting Jackson was the lawyer Telford Taylor and assisting Shawcross were Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe and Sir John Wheeler-Bennett.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Creation of the court", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page