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War Crimes And The Limits Of Legalism, Gary Jonathan Bass

Michigan Law Review

In April 1945, Sir John Simon, Britain's Lord Chancellor, drew up a memorandum that was the last gasp in the diplomatic struggle against Nuremberg. Under American pressure, and despite British objections, the Allies were poised to agree to put the Axis leadership on trial for war crimes. In the kind of magnificent understatement that the British government could sometimes inadvertently achieve, it was entitled "The Argument for Summary Process against Hitler & Co." The memorandum was a series of arguments to be used by the British delegation at the San Francisco conference in a last-ditch effort to win over the …