War crime

War crime, in international law, violation of the laws and rules of war. The first systematic attempt to frame laws for warfare was by Hugo Grotius (1625). Since 1864 various agreements have laid down principles for the treatment of combatants and civilians and have attempted to outlaw certain weapons. Among the few people convicted of war crimes was Confederate officer Henry Wirz, executed in 1865. An attempt was made to try the German Kaiser after World War I, and some German officers were tried (mostly acquitted) by a German court. One major war crimes trial, conducted by the United States, USSR, France, and Britain, was at Nuremberg, Germany, in which 3 categories of war crimes were defined: crimes against peace (planning and waging aggressive war); “conventional” war crimes (murder of civilians or prisoners of war, plunder, etc.); and crimes against humanity (murder, enslavement, or deportation of whole populations). The principle of individual responsibility was also established. A tribunal of 11 nations in Tokyo, Japan (1946–47), sentenced alleged Japanese war criminals.

See also: Nuremberg Trials.