CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

Beyond Nuremberg: The Origins of Modern Human Rights Law

Diamond 223

At the end of World War II, 23 German medical officers were placed before the United States Military Courts in the U.S. occupational zone at Nuremberg, Germany. The goal of the trials was to punish those responsible for their inhumane acts as well as bring justice to all those who were wronged under wartime medicinal practices. These defendants were charged with committing a series of atrocities including; conspiracy to commit crimes against humanity, crimes against the peace, conspiracy to commit war crimes exceeding the laws and customs of war, and crimes against humanity (murder, enslavement, extermination, deportation, persecution, and mass euthanasia). From the many violent acts that took place in Nazi Germany during the World War II era, there developed an entirely new global perspective on the definition of crimes against humanity and the violation of international human rights. Some historians argue that International Law would have developed regardless of Nuremberg, however, the malpractices that took place prior to World War II did not encourage a global desire for change and so it is clear that Nuremberg was the driving force behind international backlash. Moreover, the influence of the Nuremberg trials is evident in all subsequent international policy regarding human rights. Using research regarding the trials and the development of international human rights laws as well as drawing on primary sources both from trial participants and the documentation from wartime Medical physicians, I will demonstrate how the Nuremberg Code set an international precedent that prompted the creation of international legal policy regarding human rights as well as influenced domestic policy in the United States. Nuremberg set a new worldwide precedent that permanently changed the concepts of warti

https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/clas/2014/program/288