LEGAL BASIS OF THE NUREMBERG TRIAL: RULES AND SOURCES OF LAW

Abstract

The article is devoted to the issue of procedural and substantive rules of law, on the basis of which the International Military Tribunal was created and conducted its work over the main functionaries of the Nazi regime in Germany. The author explains the legal foundations of the Nuremberg tribunal's activities from the point of view of the law sources (forms) doctrine, and indicates the main sources and their role in the process of preparing the legal framework for the trial of war criminals. The author studied the main normative agreements drawn up by the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition for the organization of the trial of the fascist regime functionaries in Germanу, and examined the acts relating to the establishment of a military tribunal and determining the order of its work. As a special source underlying the conviction, the generally recognized principles of law are highlighted: humanism, moderation of repression, respect for human rights, etc. The author concludes that the procedural side of the legal support for the activities of the Nuremberg Tribunal had a solid basis in the form of a number of normative treaties concluded by authorized representatives of the winning countries, and the charges were based on an extensive layer of legal rules, denounced in the form of international treaties and recognized by the world community principles of law. At the same time, a distinctive feature of the sources underlying the charges was the lack of unified and universally recognized sanctions, which marked an obvious gap in international law, filled by the granting broad powers to the international military tribunal on the nature of possible defendants punishment. According to the author`s opinion, the importance of the Nuremberg tribunal, as a precedent that marked the beginning of the formation of institutions for bringing war criminals to justice, lies in the creation of a mechanism for the application of international criminal law sanctions.