ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the natural law charge that positivism was at least partly responsible for the rise of Nazism, and that the whole experience of this tyranny exposed the theoretical shortcomings of positivism as a legal theory. Bringing to justice the Nazi leaders and other perpetrators of some of the worst crimes seen in modern times was regarded by the Allied governments as a priority. The case of Nazi Germany and its legal system moved to centre stage in this dispute partly because of the meticulous attention that the Nazi leaders paid to legality. The rule of law means that the exercise of legal powers is constrained by the requirements of procedural correctness. The problem was that despite the horrors it had perpetrated, their laws had every appearance of belonging to a genuine legal system and there were numerous lawyers of high rank close to the centre of government.
