Title: The United Nations War Crimes Commission (UNWCC), 1943–1948, and the Codification of International Criminal Law: An Introduction to the Special Issue
Abstract: Crimes against peace' and 'crimes against humanity' are two elements of international law which acquired enormous resonance in the legal and moral discussions in the aftermath of the Second World War.The origination of these concepts is often attributed to the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg and the American chief prosecutor at Nuremberg, Robert Jackson, and Hersch Lauterpacht.1However, this approach, quite widespread among international lawyers, overlooks the significant impact of the United Nations War Crimes Commission (UNWCC) which, since its foundation in 1943, had paved the way for the London Charter.The UNWCC and its predecessors, the Cambridge Commission and the London International Assembly (LIA)concerned itself with legal questions relating to war crimes, to which its copious minutes testify.It had been established by seventeen of the Allied nations, initiated by representatives of occupied European countries, such as France and Poland, the Netherlands and Yugoslavia, but also included Australia, New Zealand and China and was thus one of the first global endeavours.The UNWCC's main function was to formulate and implement general measures for trial and punishment of alleged Axis war criminals.When central aspects of their findings were discussed at the London Conference in the summer of 1945, Robert Jackson was present as the head of the American delegation.The ideas shaping Nuremberg predominantly originated within the debates of the UNWCC, contributed to not only by the few known central figures (Jackson, Lauterpacht, Lemkin) but by the 1 Compare amongst others Vrdoljak, Ana Filipa.