Nuremberg Principles

The fundamental principles of international law represented in the Nuremberg Charter and the Judgment are now known as the Nuremberg Principles. In 1946, the United Nations General Assembly affirmed the principles of international law recognised by the Charter and Judgment of the Nuremberg Tribunal. Trygve Lie, the first Secretary-General of the United Nations had called for these principles to be made “a permanent part of international law” citing the need “to protect mankind against future wars”. Four years later, in 1950, the International Law Commission formulated seven “Nuremberg Principles” after being entrusted with this responsibility by the General Assembly. The formulation of the Nuremberg Principles marked a watershed moment for international criminal law. Their influence has significantly shaped the current substance and procedure of this law. 

The Nuremberg Principles 

  • criminalised aggressive war
  • established individual criminal responsibility under international law
  • removed Head of State immunity and other forms of immunity for core international crimes
  • laid the groundwork for foundational definitions, modes of liability and determining complicity for these crimes
  • emphasised fair trial rights for the accused in international criminal proceedings. 

Over the last seventy years, the influence of the Nuremberg Principles has been visible in the development of the statutes and jurisprudence of the ad hoc criminal tribunals, hybrid courts and the International Criminal Court. 

The Nuremberg Academy aspires to build on this historical legacy and advance contemporary accountability efforts in the spirit of a modern application of the Nuremberg Principles. 

“Civilization does not expect that you can make war impossible. It does expect that your juridical action will put the forces of international law, its precepts, its prohibitions and, most of all, its sanctions, on the side of peace” - Robert H. Jackson

The Nuremberg Principles (pdf), Source: United Nations Office of Legal Affairs

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