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IP: The Nuremberg Trials
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sun, 09 Dec 2001 17:53:05 -0500
Date: Sun, 9 Dec 2001 17:20:02 -0500 From: Jamie McCarthy <jamie () mccarthy vg> Subject: The Nuremberg Trials To: farber () cis upenn edu > I am fascinated by Mr. Fisk's selective recall. He seems to > have forgotten that the Nuremberg trials were essentially > military tribunals. The "essentially" is unnecesary; they were military tribunals in name. The best-known trial is properly known as the Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal. The others are collectively known as the Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals. But this rhetorical point is misleading, if it is intended to provide historical precedent for the secret trials the Bush administration intends. The IMT was held before an international court with film cameras rolling. Every word was translated, transcribed and each day's proceedings were reported in the newspapers. The U.S., Great Britain and France (I don't know about the Soviet Union) published the full transcripts after the trial was over. Those four nations worked together to assemble evidence and present it (and to make sure the defense was entitled to a fair trial). The IMT's Rules of Procedure were a mix of (nonmilitary!) courtroom rules from all four nations. There would have been a few rules that seemed odd to an American, or at least to one familiar with American legal procedure. But overall the international court was entirely in keeping with longstanding Western traditions of law. It was not a kangaroo court; three of the 22 defendents were entirely acquitted and eleven others were acquitted of some of the charges against them. More information on the IMT is here: http://www.holocaust-history.org/short-essays/nuremberg.shtml and the Rules of Procedure it laid out are here: http://www.holocaust-history.org/works/imt/01/htm/t019.htm -- Jamie McCarthy jamie () mccarthy vg
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- IP: The Nuremberg Trials David Farber (Dec 09)