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1 Int'l L.Q. 153 (1947)
Will the Judgment in the Nuremberg Trial Constitute a Precedent in International Law

handle is hein.journals/intlq1 and id is 165 raw text is: THE INTERNATIONAL LAW QUARTERLY Volume 1 No. 2 Summer 1947 WILL THE JUDGMENT IN THE NUREMBERG TRIAL CONSTITUTE A PRECEDENT IN INTERNATIONAL LAW? By PROFESSOR HANS KELSEN, of the University of California 1. IN his report to the President of the U.S. of October 15, 1946, on the Nuremberg Trial, Mr. Justice Jackson said that the rules of law applied by the International Military Tribunal in the trial of the German war criminals have been 'incorporated' into a ' judicial precedent '. ' A judgment such as has been rendered shifts the power of the precedent to the support of these rules of law. No one can hereafter deny or fail to know that the principles on which the Nazi leaders are adjudged to forfeit their lives con- stitute law-law with a sanction '.1 The correctness of this statement is doubtful. A precedent is a judicial decision which serves as a model for subsequent decisions of similar cases. In order to be a precedent, the decision of a tribunal must conform with certain formal and material conditions which the judgment of Nuremberg does not fulfil. The first condition is that the judicial decision must establish a new rule of law. This rule of law must be created by the judicial decision, not by the act of a legislative organ, br by custom, or by an international treaty (which is equivalent to legislation). It is New York Times, October 16, 1946, p. 23. 153 r.J.Q. 11

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