Editing Nuremberg trials (section)

===Nuremberg charter===
[[File:A.N. Trainin speaks at the War Crimes Executive Committee.jpg|thumb|[[Aron Trainin]] (center, with moustache) speaks at the London Conference.]]
[[File:The Palace of Justice in Nurnberg.jpg|thumb|Aerial view of the Palace of Justice in 1945, with the prison attached behind it]]
[[File:Ruins of Nuremberg after World War II.jpg|thumb|Ruins of [[Nuremberg]], {{Circa|1945}}]]

At the London Conference, held from 26 June to 2 August 1945, representatives of [[France]], the [[Soviet Union]], the [[United Kingdom]], and the [[United States]] negotiated the form that the trial would take. Until the end of the negotiations, it was not clear that any trial would be held at all.{{sfn|Sellars|2013|p=84}}

The offences that would be prosecuted were crimes against peace, [[crimes against humanity]], and war crimes.{{sfn|Sellars|2013|pp=85–86}} At the conference, it was debated whether wars of aggression were prohibited in existing [[customary international law]]; regardless, before the charter was adopted there was no law providing for criminal responsibility for aggression.{{sfn|Sellars|2013|pp=87–88}}{{sfn|Tomuschat|2006|pp=832–833}} Despite misgivings from other Allies, American negotiator and [[Supreme Court (United States)|Supreme Court]] justice [[Robert H. Jackson]] threatened the United States' withdrawal if aggression was not prosecuted because it had been the rationale for [[Military history of the United States during World War II#Origins|American entry into World War II]].{{sfn|Sellars|2013|pp=84–85, 88–89}} However, Jackson conceded on defining crimes against peace; the other three Allies were opposed because it would undermine the freedom of action of the [[United Nations Security Council]].{{sfn|Sellars|2013|pp=98–100}}

War crimes already existed in international law as criminal violations of the [[international humanitarian law|laws and customs of war]], but these did not apply to a government's treatment of its own citizens.{{sfn|Tomuschat|2006|p=834}}{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|pp=30, 34}} Legal experts sought a way to try crimes against German citizens, such as the [[The Holocaust in Germany|German Jews]].{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|p=34}} A Soviet proposal for a charge of "crimes against civilians" was renamed "crimes against humanity" at Jackson's suggestion{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|pp=68, 73}} after previous uses of the term in the [[Aftermath of World War I|post-World War I]] [[Commission of Responsibilities]] and in failed efforts to prosecute the perpetrators of the [[Armenian genocide]].{{sfn|Bassiouni|2011|pp=xxx–xxxi, 94}} The British proposal to define crimes against humanity was largely accepted, with the final wording being "murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population".{{sfn|Bassiouni|2011|pp=xxxi, 33}}{{sfn|Musa|2016|p=373}} The final version of the charter limited the tribunal's jurisdiction over crimes against humanity to those committed as part of a war of aggression.{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|p=73}}{{sfn|Acquaviva|2011|pp=884–885}} Both the United States—concerned that its "[[Jim Crow]]" system of [[Racial segregation in the United States|racial segregation]] not be labeled a crime against humanity—and the Soviet Union wanted to avoid giving an international court jurisdiction over a government's treatment of its own citizens.{{sfn|Mouralis|2019|pp=102–103, 114, 120, 135}}{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|p=70}}

The charter upended the traditional view of [[international law]] by holding individuals, [[state responsibility|rather than states]], responsible for breaches.{{sfn|Tomuschat|2006|pp=839–840}}{{sfn|Sellars|2013|pp=85–86}} The other three Allies' proposal to limit the definition of the crimes to acts committed by the defeated Axis was rejected by Jackson. Instead, the charter limited the jurisdiction of the court to Germany's actions.{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|pp=9–10}}{{sfn|Sellars|2013|p=101}} Article 7 prevented the defendants from claiming [[sovereign immunity]],{{sfn|Sellars|2013|p=87}} and the plea of acting under [[superior orders]] was left for the judges to decide.{{sfn|Heller|2011|p=11}} The trial was held under modified [[common law]].{{sfn|Sellars|2013|p=85}}  The negotiators decided that the tribunal's permanent seat would be in Berlin, while the trial would be held at the [[Palace of Justice, Nuremberg|Palace of Justice]] in [[Nuremberg]].{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|p=73}}{{sfn|Priemel|2016|p=76}} Located in the [[American occupation zone]], Nuremberg was a symbolic location as the site of [[Nuremberg rallies|Nazi rallies]]. The Palace of Justice was relatively intact but needed to be renovated for the trial due to [[bombing of Nuremberg in World War II|bomb damage]]; it had an attached prison where the defendants could be held.{{sfn|Weinke|2006|p=31}}{{sfn|Priemel|2016|p=76}} On 8 August, the Nuremberg Charter was signed in London.{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|p=74}}