Today’s international law lacks creditability and resources

The genocide in Gaza requires reinstating the concept of a law of plotting and waging aggressive war as “the supreme international crime.”

Being complicit is a severe offense and should be addressed at the highest international level. However, if the subordinates of Israel and the U.S. Department of Defense and the respected governments were to be tried in The Hague, their defense would argue that they were following the orders of their respective administrations. They would say that they should not be held responsible for the alleged crimes they are accused of, particularly complicity in acts of war and crimes against humanity.

This is a common defense for all loyal subordinates, and it has been witnessed since the Nuremberg trials of 1945-46. There the defensive argument carried no or little weight, as the Allies were against the defeated Nazi Germany. Then, the International Military Tribunal (IMT) declared that plotting and waging aggressive war was “the supreme international crime” and sentenced eleven defendants to death.

The Nuremberg principles have influenced many establishments since the International Military Tribunal (IMT). However, they have lost their denotation in today’s international law. Their purpose has failed, as they were intended to ensure that crimes like those during WW2 would never happen again. Political meddling has introduced itself and prevented international justice from taking place in major wars and conflicts the world has suffered since.

The primary culprits, the United States of America and the United Kingdom, with their respective leaders, will never be brought to justice, making international law ineffective and insufficient in handling severe offenses.

Establishing a separate, however periodically fixed international war crimes tribunal today wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all. However, it would require significant cooperation among the world’s leading institutions and governments. The International Criminal Court (ICC) alone doesn’t have sufficient resources to conduct such a massive investigation and court proceedings.

 

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