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A war crimes trial is the trial of persons charged with criminal violation of the laws and customs of war and related principles of international law committed during armed conflict. ==History== The trial of Peter von Hagenbach by an ad hoc tribunal of the Holy Roman Empire in 1474, was the first “international” war crimes trials and also of command responsibility.〔(The evolution of individual criminal responsibility under international law ) By Edoardo Greppi, Associate Professor of International Law at the University of Turin, Italy, International Committee of the Red Cross No. 835, p. 531-553, October 30, 1999.〕〔(Exhibit highlights the first international war crimes tribunal ) by Linda Grant, Harvard Law Bulletin.]〕 Hagenbach was put on trial for atrocities committed during the occupation of Breisach, found guilty, and beheaded.〔(An Introduction to the International Criminal Court ) William A. Schabas, Cambridge University Press, Third Edition〕 Since he was convicted for crimes, "he as a knight was deemed to have a duty to prevent", although Hagenbach defended himself by arguing that he was only following orders from the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, to whom the Holy Roman Empire had given Breisach. In 1865, Henry Wirz, a Confederate officer, was held accountable and hanged for appalling conditions at Andersonville Prison where many Union soldiers died during the American Civil War. After World War I, a small number of German personnel were tried by a German court in the Leipzig War Crimes Trials for crimes allegedly committed during that war. After World War II, the phrase referred usually to the trials of German and Japanese leaders in courts established by the victorious Allied nations. The most important of these trials were held in Nuremberg, Germany, under the authority of two legal instruments. One, the London Charter was signed by representatives of the United States, Great Britain, France, and the USSR in London on August 8, 1945; the other, Law No. 10, was promulgated by the Allied Control Council in Berlin on December 20, 1945. The London Charter provided for the establishment of the International Military Tribunal, composed of one judge and one alternate judge from each of the signatory nations, to try war criminals. Under the London Charter, the crimes charged against defendants fell into three categories: crimes against peace, that is, crimes involving the planning, initiating, and waging a war of aggression; war crimes, that is, violations of the laws and customs of war as embodied in the Hague Conventions and generally recognized by military forces of civilized nations; and crimes against humanity, such as the extermination of racial, ethnic, and religious groups and other such atrocities against civilians. On October 8, 1945, Anton Dostler was the first German general to be tried for war crimes by a U.S. military tribunal at the Royal Palace of Caserta in Caserta. He was accused of ordering the killing of 15 captured U.S. soldiers of Operation Ginny II in Italy in March 1944. He admitted into ordering the execution but said that he cannot be held responsible because he was just following orders from his superiors. The execution of 15 U.S. prisoners of war in Italy ordered by Dostler was an implementation of Hitler's Commando Order of 1942 which required the immediate execution of all Allied commandos, whether in proper uniforms or not, without trial if apprehended by German forces. The tribunal rejected the defense of Superior Orders and found Dostler guilty of war crimes. He was sentenced to death and executed by a firing squad on December 1, 1945, in Aversa. The Dostler case became precedent for the Nuremberg trials of German generals, officials, and Nazi leaders beginning in November 1945 that using Superior orders as a defense does not relieve officers from responsibility of carrying out illegal orders and liable to be punished in court. This principle was codified in Principle IV of the Nuremberg Principles and similar principle were found in sections of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「War crimes trial」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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