Grounds for the Punishment of the Nazi Criminals before National Courts for Crimes under the International Criminal Law
Abstract
This text seeks to discuss the various forms of the reflection of the prosecution of Nazi criminals after the end of the World War II. Considering the far-reaching scale of the Nazi crimes it is self-evident that only a small fraction of the major war criminals could be brought to justice before the international tribunal.
The main part of these criminals was therefore tried before national courts. In certain cases these trials were conducted on the basis of the traditional Criminal Law, while in other cases they were based on the direct or indirect application of the rules of the International Criminal Law.
On the examples of the German, Austrian and Israeli experience with such trials it is attempted to reflect the effectiveness of these various national approaches and via this historical excursion to identify certain key elements of the complementarity principle, which is essential for the jurisdiction of the contemporary International Criminal Court.