“A New International Law” - an early critique of the manner in which the Nuremberg Trials were conducted. Lisbon ...

“A New International Law” - an early critique of the manner in which the Nuremberg Trials were conducted. Lisbon, 1947 - first edition

Um Novo Direito Internacional Nuremberg – "A New International Law (Nuremberg)" by João das Regras - a collection of articles published in the weekly A NAÇÃO (The Nation) criticizing the conduct of the judges in the Nuremberg Trials. Includes an appendix by Dr. Alfredo Pimenta. Lisbon, 1947 - first edition. Portuguese. Extremely rare.

The four articles by João das Regras on the “Tragedy of Nuremberg, ” and an appendix by Alfredo Pimenta (Alfredo Pimenta) - a historian and prominent publicist of the Portuguese far right, known for his sharp criticism of liberalism and of the Allied “victors’ justice.” The booklet presents a series of claims against the conduct of the trial. The author argues that the tribunal was not neutral, but rather a body in which the victors of the war judged the defeated (“victors’ justice”). It is also argued that the Allied powers were not brought to trial for similar crimes, such as the Katyn Forest massacre (carried out by the Soviets), the carpet bombings of German cities (such as Dresden), and the use of atomic bombs in Japan. It is further claimed that all the judges came from the four victorious countries. There were no judges from neutral countries (such as Switzerland or Sweden), nor any German judges, which raised doubts regarding the objectivity of the proceedings. It is also argued that the charges of “crimes against peace” and “crimes against humanity” did not exist in international law at the time the acts were committed, and that the Allied powers invented new laws in order to convict individuals for actions that had been legal under their country’s legal system during the war. In classical international law prior to Nuremberg, the state bore responsibility, not the individual. It is also claimed that the defense did not have free access to archives and documents as the prosecution did. He further argues that the tribunal adopted very flexible rules of evidence in order to facilitate convictions, something that conservative jurists viewed as an infringement of the rights of the accused.

Of course, the author ignores the fact that the unprecedented historical circumstances necessitated a legal breakthrough, since strict adherence to existing law would have led to an even more severe moral miscarriage of justice. He also ignores the fact that the actions of the Nazis were so criminal and so contrary to basic human morality that no defendant could honestly claim not to have known that they were crimes; natural and universal morality constitutes a supreme law that overrides the absence of a specific clause in any particular national law book. In order to address the claim that this was “victors’ justice, ” the Allied powers took care to base the charges on mountains of official documents of the Nazi regime itself - signed orders, protocols, and diaries - so that the evidence emerged from within the German system and did not rely solely on the victors’ narrative. In addition, the very existence of a public legal proceeding with the right of defense and legal counsel was perceived as a superior democratic response compared to the alternative of extrajudicial executions, as initially proposed by some leaders. As for the claim of “obedience to orders” and sovereign immunity, Nuremberg established a revolutionary principle whereby crimes are committed by human beings and not by abstract entities; therefore, a leader or officer cannot hide behind his position or behind a manifestly illegal order. In doing so, the trial not only judged the past but also laid the foundation for modern international law, placing human rights and individual responsibility above the absolute sovereignty of the state, based on the understanding that the world cannot stand idly by when a state turns against its own citizens or against humanity as a whole.

On the title page appears a stamp of “LA PENSÉE NATIONALE” with an address in Paris. This was a French bookstore and publishing house that specialized in right-wing, nationalist, and anti-communist literature, or works critical of the post-war world order. This indicates that the booklet was circulated within intellectual circles of the European right beyond Portugal as well.

Extremely rare. Only one copy recorded in the WorldCat global library catalog, in a library in Lisbon - Portugal.

72 pages. Light stains on the cover. Some of the pages are uncut (joined at their upper edges). Good condition.