ABSTRACT

In this chapter, the author discusses the concept of the rule of law will be characterized in a fashion that lends support to his case for sustaining efforts to prosecute the remaining Nazi offenders almost half a century later. The victorious nations were spurred by both moral necessity and political opportunity to respond to the pervasive atrocities of the Nazi regime. Their response was framed largely on the basis of a landmark multinational conception of the rule of law. The fusion of politics, morality, and law is expressed in the American idea of constitutionalism, which arose partly in the struggles against absolutist and arbitrary political rule. Anglo-American law has strongly influenced the form, direction, and importance of international law with respect to the conception of basic rights of individuals, peoples, and nations in a world community. The infamous Nuremberg race laws were passed mainly for the purpose of isolating the Jewish population from the body of German citizenry.