On 1 December 2025, the Nuremberg Academy in cooperation with the British Institute of International & Comparative Law (BIICL) and the Robert H. Jackson Center co-organised a panel discussion in London titled " 80 Years On: The Legacy of the Nuremberg Trials for Accountability".
The discussion focused on the continued importance of the precedents set by the Nuremberg Trials, and the resulting Nuremberg Principles, for the global struggle against impunity today. In particular, the discussants considered what bearing Nuremberg has on the much-vexed question of whether doctrines of immunity can act as a bar to the arrest and prosecution of State officials accused of international crimes. Consideration was also given to the wider legal and political landscape of the 1940s that facilitated transformative approaches to seeking justice, including the work of the United Nations War Crimes Commission. The speakers reflected on the lessons that remain to be learnt from these past processes in order to close outstanding accountability gaps.
The panel was composed of:
Chair
- Judge Joanna Korner CMG KC, Judge of the International Criminal Court
Speakers
- Professor Diane Marie Amann, Regents' Professor of International Law, Emily & Ernest Woodruff Chair in International Law, and Faculty Co-Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center, at the University of Georgia
- Ms Kirsty Sutherland, Barrister, 9BR Chambers
- Sir Howard Morrison KCMG CBE KC, former ICC Judge and current Independent Advisor on War Crimes to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General
- Professor Dan Plesch, Professor of Diplomacy and Strategy at SOAS University of London, and Visiting Research Fellow at BIICL
- Professor Dr Christoph Safferling, Director of the International Nuremberg Principles Academy
The panel discussion was followed by a Q&A session with the audience. Please click here for the video of the event.
This event was conceived as part of the year-long international symposium titled “80 Years of Nuremberg Symposium” organised by the Robert H. Jackson Center in partnership with leading institutions from the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom. (km)