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CRIMES AGAINST PEACE IN NUREMBERG
held daily press conferences to deliver the directives of the Propaganda Ministry on
the subject. A similar role was also played by
Funk
. He was made Press Chief in the
Reich Government, and later Under Secretary in the Ministry of Propaganda. As a
leading figure in the various Nazi organisations, he took a number of steps to control
the press, publishing houses, films and music.
50
The mentioned delineation is, of course, only theoretical. The defendants perpetrated
the crimes against peace by means of a few functions, as seen in the examples of Funk,
Goering and many others. Furthermore, it may be hard to distinguish between
diplomatic and political or educational and media/propagative preparation. In
addition, politics interpenetrated all the activities in the country. It is also clear
that without financial support none of the Reich plans could be fulfilled.
The Judgment does not help us to find an answer to the question whether one
kind of preparation for war is worse than another and whether one of these elements
is sufficient to create the crime. It is also not clear whether it is possible to make
such a direct differentiation. Nonetheless, what is absolutely clear is that the Trial in
Nuremberg influenced the theory of international criminal law. Let us gaze on what
further steps were taken by the states and international organisations in the way of
improvement of criminal justice on a worldwide level.
4. Further development
In the current short section it would be impossible to research all the sources of
international criminal law from 1945 to 2015. The last seventy years brought many
changes to our global society. It is true that states are still separated and we cannot speak
about a president of the world, a world parliament or a worldwide court. Nonetheless,
on the level of the United Nations, the organisation which unites almost all countries
in the world, there are a number of bodies playing an exceptional role in the formation
of an international vision. One of these bodies is the International Law Commission
(hereinafter also the ‘ILC’).
For almost seventy years, the ILC has produced many pieces of legislation, including
those in the area of criminal law. The most interesting for us, given the subject
of this article, are the
Principles of International Law recognized in the Charter of the
Nürnberg Tribunal and in the Judgment of the Tribunal
of 1950
51
(hereinafter also the
‘Principles’) and the
Draft Code of Crimes against the Peace and Security of Mankind
of
1954,
52
which was amended in 1996
53
(hereinafter also the ‘Code’). We are going to
50
Judgement: Funk, cited above.
51
Principles of International Law recognized in the Charter of the Nürnberg Tribunal and in the
Judgment of the Tribunal.
Yearbook of the International Law Commission, 1950
, vol. II.
52
Draft Code of Offences against the Peace and Security of Mankind.
Yearbook of the International Law
Commission, 1954
, vol. II.
53
Draft Code of Crimes against the Peace and Security of Mankind.
Yearbook of the International Law
Commission, 1996
, vol. II, Part Two.