DES CRIMES DE GUERRE – A rare publication addressing the legal validity of the Nuremberg Trials after their conclusion, authored by Colonel Perrier – Government Commissioner at the Court for Air Force Affairs in Tunis. Published by ÉCOLE DE PERFECTIONNEMENT des OFFICIERS de RÉSERVE de JUSTICE MILITAIRE – “Advanced Training School for Reserve Officers in Military Justice – High Command of the Tunisian Forces.” Tunis, 1955. In French. Stencil printing. Rare.
A detailed official legal report submitted by Colonel Perrier, addressing the future applicability of the regulations and foundational principles under which Nazi war criminals were executed following the Nuremberg Trials. The report explores whether Nazi war criminals could be convicted based on the same legal rationale used by the judges of the international tribunal established specifically for that purpose. Perrier discusses cases in which Nazi war criminals were captured after the conclusion of the Nuremberg Trials and were found to have been involved in acts of deliberate poisoning (defined as: “any exposure to a gas burner, any contamination of consumer goods or foodstuffs, as well as any deposit, inhalation or use of harmful substances likely to cause death”), executions carried out as acts of revenge, forced detention of civilians, deportations for any reason, and more.
Perrier adopts the principle of “the doctrine of passive obedience”, which served as the basis for convicting the defendants at Nuremberg, asserting that in most cases, war criminals acted under orders from a higher authority. However, the authority issuing those orders itself acted under instructions from a superior entity higher in the hierarchy. Still, this fact does not absolve the lower-level authority that carried out the atrocities, and Perrier asserts that this principle should also be applied to Nazi war criminals captured after the trials concluded. He also addresses the matter of war crimes attributed to the collective actions of structures or groups that were part of an organization declared criminal by the International Military Tribunal under the law of August 8, 1945. He calls for the adoption of the verdicts executed at Nuremberg in this context.
At the core of the London Agreement of August 8, 1945 — signed by France, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics — it was established that an international military tribunal would be created to try war criminals whose crimes were not geographically specific, whether accused as individuals, as members of an organization or group, or both. Perrier draws on this principle and concludes that any individual who was a participant in such an organization may be prosecuted for their involvement as part of a criminal organization, anywhere in the world, and more.
Rare. Not listed in the WorldCat global library catalog.
22 pages. Very good condition.
