Matt Ortega

Megan McArdle:

Mmmm . . . I am in no way unhappy with the outcome of Nuremberg, but my understanding is that most international lawyers regard them basically as show trials. I’m not sure they’re a great example to use.

Reality:

The Nuremberg trials had a great influence on the development of international criminal law. The International Law Commission, acting on the request of the United Nations General Assembly, produced in 1950 the report Principles of International Law Recognized in the Charter of the Nürnberg Tribunal and in the Judgement of the Tribunal (Yearbook of the International Law Commission, 1950, vol. II^[30]). The influence of the tribunal can also be seen in the proposals for a permanent international criminal court, and the drafting of international criminal codes, later prepared by the International Law Commission.

Matt Browner-Hamlin adds more historical background to one of the biggest landmark international criminal court cases that, according to Megan McArdle, is not a great example to use.

Senator Dodd’s father, Tom Dodd, was a lead prosecutor at Nuremberg. Dodd recently published his father’s living history of his experience at the trials in a living history titled Letters From Nuremberg. On the campaign trail, Senator Dodd would frequently reference Nuremberg when talking about the necessity to defend the rule of law here in America. His favorite quote, something that I have since committed to memory, was from chief American prosecutor at Nuremberg, Justice Robert Jackson:

“That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason.”

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum called the trials a “watershed moment in international justice.” Sixty years after the trials, the Anti-Defamation League cited the significance of Nuremberg.

Avoid looking as ridiculous as Megan McArdle and read up on the Nuremberg Trials. Harvard Law School maintains digital copies of documents relevant to the trials.

In the meantime, check out the judgment scene from the 1961 Academy Award winning film, Judgment at Nuremberg:

In the New York Times on Sunday, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is unable to find a job after he was forced to resign from his post last year.

He has, through friends, put out inquiries, they said, and has not found any takers. What makes Mr. Gonzales’s case extraordinary is that former attorneys general, the government’s chief lawyer, are typically highly sought.

The Times report states that Gonzales has not held a full-time job since he left the Bush administration in utter disgrace over the politicized firings of U.S. attorneys, warrantless domestic surveillance, and institutionalized torture. Instead, Gonzales is living off paid speeches and the lecture circuit — speaking engagements that often draw protests.

ABC News dropped a bombshell of a news story on the principal members of the Bush administration approving specific interrogation tactics to be used by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). To lift a line from the legendary Desi Arnaz as “Ricky Ricardo” in I Love Lucy — the Bush administration has some ’splainin’ to do.

In dozens of top-secret talks and meetings in the White House, the most senior Bush administration officials discussed and approved specific details of how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, sources tell ABC News. […]

Highly placed sources said a handful of top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects — whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding.

The high-level discussions about these “enhanced interrogation techniques” were so detailed, these sources said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed — down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic.

The principals included:

• Vice President Dick Cheney
• Then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice
• Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
• Former Secretary of State Colin Powell
• Former CIA Director George Tenet
• Former Attorney General John Ashcroft

So much for Senator John McCain’s (R-Arizona) secret weapon at Vice President?

Read the full story.