The label "victor's justice" (in German, Siegerjustiz) is applied by advocates to a situation in which they believe that a victorious nation is applying different rules to judge what is right or wrong for their own forces and for those of the (former) enemy. The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. The label " victor's justice " (in German,) to a situation in which they believe that a victorious nation is applying different rules to judge what is right Advocates generally charge that the difference in rules amounts to hypocrisy and leads to injustice. Hypocrisy (or the state of being a hypocrite) is the act of preaching a certain belief religion or way of life but not in fact holding these same virtues oneself Targets of the label may consider it derogatory.
Closely related is "Vae Victis behaviour", where victor unilaterally changes the agreed treaties or their interpretations and is seen as a form of victor's justice. Vae victis (IPA /wai wiktiːs/ is Latin for " Woe to the vanquished " or also " Woe to the conquered "
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Why should victors be just?
The concept that a victor should be just appears to be a recent idea, possibly being part of the just war doctrine. Just War theory is a Doctrine of military ethics of Roman philosophical and Catholic origin studied by moral Theologians Ethicists and international In previous times, victors did as they liked with their defeated enemies, killing, torturing, raping, mutilating, plundering and enslaving their populations. This was accepted as the way the world was.
For example, Viriathus was assassinated by traitors on Roman orders. Viriathus (known as Viriato in Portuguese and Spanish) ( ? - 139 BC was the most important leader of the Lusitanian people that resisted When the traitors tried to get their pay, a Roman general ordered their execution allegedly saying: "Rome does not pay traitors".
However, the world subsequently aspired to higher ethical standards, and in the 19th century the Geneva conventions set up laws of war that proscribed extreme behavior, and created the concept of war crimes. The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar The Geneva Conventions consist of four Treaties formulated in Geneva, Switzerland, that set the standards for International law for humanitarian War crimes are "violations of the laws or customs of war" including but not limited to "murder the ill-treatment or deportation of civilian residents of an occupied
The unconditional surrender of the Axis Powers at the end of World War II was unusual (although World War II was itself markedly different from earlier conflicts). Unconditional surrender is a surrender without conditions except for those provided by International law. The Axis powers also known as the Axis alliance Axis nations Axis countries or sometimes just the Axis were those Countries World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Prior to World War II, most international wars ended in a conditional surrender and/or armistice followed by a peace treaty. An armistice is a situation where the warring parties agree to stop fighting When wars ended with a peace treaty, if there were any prosecutions for war crimes then they were usually carried out under the jurisdiction of the alleged criminal's own justice system or by an international court such as the International Criminal Court, staffed by nationals other than those party to the conflict. The International Criminal Court ( ICC or ICCt) was established in 2002 as a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for Genocide, crimes against
Allegations of victor's justice
At the Nuremberg Criminal Court for war crimes and other subsidiary courts like the Dachau International Military Tribunal, only Axis nationals or those who had collaborated with the Axis Powers were prosecuted. The Nuremberg Trials were a series of trials most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political military and economic leadership of Nazi Germany after The Dachau Trials were proceedings against minor war criminals found in the United States sectors of occupation in Germany and Austria and those accused of committing war crimes against The Axis powers also known as the Axis alliance Axis nations Axis countries or sometimes just the Axis were those Countries However it is usual that the armed forces of a civilised country [1] issue their forces with detailed guidance on what is and is not permitted under their military code. These are drafted to include any international treaty obligations and the customary laws of war. For example at the trial of Otto Skorzeny his defence was in part based on the Field Manual published by the War Department of the United States Army, on 1 October 1940, and the American Soldiers' Handbook [2] . Otto Skorzeny ( June 12 1908 – July 6 1975) was an Obersturmbannführer in the German Waffen-SS __FORCETOC__ Chris Walla 's second solo album entitled Field Manual, originally named It's Unsustainable, was released on January 29 Events 331 BC - Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Gaugamela. Year 1940 ( MCMXL) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. If a member of the armed forces breaks their own military code they can expect to face a court martial. A court-martial (plural courts-martial) is a Military court. These military courts can determine Punishments for members of the Military subject When members of the Allied armed forces broke their military codes they could be tried, as for example the Dachau massacre or the Biscari Massacre trials. Allied war crimes were violations of the Laws of war committed by the Allies of World War II against civilian populations or military personnel of the Axis The Dachau massacre took place in the area of Dachau concentration camp, near Dachau, Germany, on April 29, 1945 during World The Biscari massacre describes two World War II incidents in which US troops were involved in killing unarmed German and Italian prisoners of war at The unconditional surrender of the Axis powers was unusual and led directly to the formation of the international tribunals. Unconditional surrender is a surrender without conditions except for those provided by International law. Usually international wars end conditionally and the treatment of suspected war criminals makes up part of the peace treaty. In most cases those who are not prisoners of war are tried under their own judicial system if they are suspected of committing war crimes – as happened the end of the concurrent Continuation War where Allied Control Commission provided a list of occurrences of war crimes and crimes against peace, and the investigation and judgement of these cases were left to Finnish courts according to Finnish law. The Continuation War (Jatkosota Fortsättningskriget Советско-финская война ( 25 June 1941 &ndash 19 September 1944) Following the termination of hostilities in World War II, the Allied Powers were in control of the defeated Axis countries A crime against peace, in International law, refers to "planning preparation initiation or waging of wars of aggression, or a war in violation of international The war-responsibility trials in Finland (Sotasyyllisyysoikeudenkäynti was a trial of the Finnish wartime leaders held responsible for "definitely influencing Finland However, in that case an ex post facto law had to be stated, as the Finnish Criminal Act didn't contain a concept of being responsible of politics resulting in a war. In restricting the international tribunal to trying suspected Axis war crimes, the Allies were acting within normal international law.
Attempts to ensure the fairness of war crimes prosecutions
Since World War II, the accusation of victor's justice has arisen in every subsequent conflict where war crimes prosecutions have been made. Examples of include the wars in the former Yugoslavia, in Rwanda and Afghanistan. The Yugoslav Wars were a series of violent conflicts in the territory of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY that took place between 1991 and The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass killing of hundreds of thousands of Rwanda 's minority Tutsis and the moderates of its Hutu majority Afghanistan /æfˈgænɪstæn/ officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan ( Pashto: د افغانستان اسلامي جمهوریت,
The International Criminal Court was set up in 2003 as a treaty arrangement between member states in an attempt to provide a neutral international court that avoids the accusation of "victor's justice", and that would prosecute all alleged war crimes, on either side of any conflict. The International Criminal Court ( ICC or ICCt) was established in 2002 as a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for Genocide, crimes against International courts are formed by Treaties between nations or under the authority of an International organization such as the United Nations — this The United States has currently refused to join the ICC, and critics of this decision sometimes claim that this comes out of a desire for victor's justice. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the See the article on the court for more detail on US and other objections to it.
Current allegations of victor's justice
- The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), organized by the United Nations has jurisdiction over all acts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes within the territory of former Yugoslavia. The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991 The United Nations ( UN) is an International organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in International law, International security However, so far the Tribunal has prosecuted only citizens from the Balkan states. Most defendants have been Serb politicians, soldiers and paramilitaries but Croats, Bosnians and ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army guerrillas have also been tried. The Kosovo Liberation Army or KLA ( Albanian: Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës or UÇK) was a Kosovar Albanian guerilla group which sought However, the Tribunal has declined to investigate allegations made by Western academics and Serb politicians, who accused NATO officials of war crimes during the 1999 bombing of Serbia (the Kosovo War), including the deliberate bombing of a Serb TV station killing journalists, and the lethal bombing (possibly reckless) of a railway bridge whilst a civilian train was passing over it. The North Atlantic Treaty Serbia (Србија Srbija) officially the Republic of Serbia (Република Србија Republika Srbija) is a Landlocked Country The term Kosovo War or Kosovo Conflict is often used to describe two sequential and at times parallel armed conflicts in Kosovo: 1996–1999
Two further recent conflicts in which the U. S. have been involved have led to allegations of victor's justice:
- After the war in Afghanistan, the U. S. administration set up detention camps such as Camp X-Ray where they asserted that as these detainees are Illegal enemy combatants in an ongoing war, and as such can be denied protection under the Geneva Conventions. Camp X-Ray was a temporary detention facility at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp of Joint Task Force Guantanamo on the U An unlawful combatant or unprivileged combatant/belligerent is a Civilian who directly engages in armed conflict under the International Humanitarian Law The Geneva Conventions consist of four Treaties formulated in Geneva, Switzerland, that set the standards for International law for humanitarian It is by no means clear that this is the correct legal interpretation of the detainees legal rights under United States and International law. Although judicial review of this position is currently under way in the United States it is in no way certain a final legal ruling will be made since the Bush administration has argued that habeas corpus no longer applies to these detainees. An unlawful combatant or unprivileged combatant/belligerent is a Civilian who directly engages in armed conflict under the International Humanitarian Law Habeas corpus (ˈheɪbiəs ˈkɔɹpəs ( Latin: command that you have the body is the name of a legal action or Writ, through which a person can seek relief
- There has been concern that the new regime in Iraq may not have the legal skills or inclination to try war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed by the former Iraqi Ba'ath regime fairly and that this represents a desire for victor's justice through show trials. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iraq topics. The term show trial is a pejorative description of a type of highly Public trial. Commentators on international humanitarian law have argued that it has to be done this way because, the ICC cannot prosecute crimes committed prior to its creation and the U. S. administration claims that there is not the international will to set up another ad hoc ICTFY style court. However, ex-Baath party members could have been tried by a US or British court martial or Nuremberg-style tribunal--however this may have led to even more accusations of victor's justice, even if it had led to more orderly or fairer trials. The Nuremberg Trials were a series of trials most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political military and economic leadership of Nazi Germany after
The Coalition Provisional Authority passed a law making occupation forces and contractors employed by them immune from Iraqi prosecution, so they can presently only be tried by court martial or their domestic courts. The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA سلطة الائتلاف الموحدة was established as a Transitional government following the So far several countries have tried some of the military personnel for committing war crimes, for example both the United States and the United Kingdom have tried soldiers for physically abusing prisoners in Iraq. Torture, the infliction of severe physical or psychological pain upon an individual to extract information a confession or as a punishment is prohibited by international law and illegal
See also
- Disarmed Enemy Forces
- Camp X-Ray
- Nuremberg Trials
- Command responsibility
- Combatant Status Review Tribunal
- World War II
- Adolf Hitler
Footnotes
- ^ Judgement : The Law Relating to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity contained in the Avalon Project archive at Yale Law School. Disarmed Enemy Forces, and &mdash more uncommon &mdash Surrendered Enemy Forces, was a U Camp X-Ray was a temporary detention facility at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp of Joint Task Force Guantanamo on the U The Nuremberg Trials were a series of trials most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political military and economic leadership of Nazi Germany after Command responsibility, sometimes referred to as the Yamashita standard or the Medina standard, is the doctrine of hierarchical accountability in cases of The Combatant Status Review Tribunals ( CSRT) are a set of Tribunals purposed to determine whether Detainees held by the United World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Hi and welcome to Wikipedia! Please understand that this article is frequently vandalized and vandalism is reverted immediately The Avalon Project is the name of Yale Law School 's Digital library of Documents relating to Law History and Diplomacy Yale Law School, or YLS, is the Law school of Yale University in New Haven Connecticut. "but by 1939 these rules laid down in the [Hague] Convention [of 1907] were recognised by all civilised nations, and were regarded as being declaratory of the laws and customs of war"
- ^ Trial of Otto Skorzeny and Others, General Military Government Court of the U. S. Zone of Germany, 18 August to 9 September 1947. Events 293 BC - The oldest known Roman temple to Venus is founded starting the institution of Vinalia Rustica. Events 1000 - Battle of Svolder, Viking Age. 1379 - Treaty of Neuberg, splitting the Austrian Year 1947 ( MCMXLVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar of the Gregorian calendar.
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