 |
In particular, Trainin proposes to attribute personal guilt for
crimes against peace not only to the. members of armies and governments, but
also to propagandists, capitalists, and industrialists. A significant light is
thrown in this connection on the provisions of Control Council Law No. 10,
Article II, Number 2f, concerning the criminal responsibility of the
economic leaders [Wirtschaftsfuehrer] which, according to the text, is
sufficient in itself to justify conviction, but which then prosecution
understands to be merely a supposition of guilt.
Thus this trial in
particular is overshadowed by the Russian ideology and by the fight against
the, old and revered legal traditions of the civilized world, which is
stigmatized as an outcome of the capitalist and imperialist ideology. However
worthy of respect may be Jackson’s idealism, this is, nevertheless, his
opinion. and not that of American jurisprudence or that of his colleagues on
the Supreme Court of the United States. The more I searched the rich American
legal literature, the more was this impression strengthened by my studies.
Strong legal ethics were perceptible there which refute the Soviet
insinuations, and I cannot refrain from quoting the words of Justice Murphy in
the Yamashita case, though they were expressed in a dissenting opinion, because
they disclose the deep feeling the crisis which justice is undergoing in such
trials, and at the same time, emphasize the high and indestructible dignity of
old legal traditions.
Murphy states: |
| |
“The inalienable rights of
the individual, including those guaranteed by the ‘due process’
clause of the Fifth Amendment, do not apply only to the nations which have
excelled on the battlefield or to those which have dedicated themselves to the
democratic ideology. They apply to all people in the world, whether victorious
or defeated, whatever their race, color, or creed. They rise above all
temporary popular passion and fury. Neither a court, nor the legislative or
executive powers, not even the mightiest army in the he world. can ever abolish
them. Such is the universal and indestructible nature of the civil rights * *
*” |
| He also states: |
| |
“The necessity of punishing
war criminals does not justify the abandonment of our respect for justice * *
*, to draw any other conclusion would mean that the enemy may have lost the
battle, but succeeded in destroying our
ideals.”* |
| This Tribunal, too, is on the side of the law. For the first time in
the course of the Nuernberg trials, it has appointed a special counsel of all
defendants for fundamental questions of law, which it obviously does not regard
as legalisms having only the purpose of complicating and |
__________
* U. S. Reports, 327
(Washington, D. C., United States Government Printing Office, 1946) pages 26
and 27, 29.
876 |
. 
