ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the extension of jurisdictional bases that circumvented aspects of statist based criminal jurisdiction through international courts and tribunals. Westphalian sovereignty enshrined the internal and external autonomy of the State. The accompanying sovereign tenets of political independence and territorial supremacy established the State's freedom of action and unlimited use of power internally, forbidding an exercise of jurisdiction by any State over issues and individuals within another State's territorial boundaries, thus precluding external interference and unsolicited intervention. The concept that international law should take into account the rights and duties of individuals were not a position generally accepted as a part of international law immediately prior to Nuremberg. The progressive trends in certain judicial opinions as well as legal writings in the interwar period buoyed by post-World War I efforts at international criminal accountability contributed in paving the way for the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals.
