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2012 Army Law. 60 (2012)
Book Reviews

handle is hein.journals/armylaw2012 and id is 62 raw text is: The Nuremberg Military Tribunals and the Origins of International Criminal Law, Reviewed by Major Andrew Kernan* The NMTs pursued a variety of different goals, the most important of which were achieving retributive justice, educating the German people, creating a historical record, and contributing to the development of international criminal law. Some of those goals were achieved; others were not.2 I. Introduction On 7 March, 2011, President Barack Obama issued an executive order directing the resumption of the trials of declared Al Qaeda members and affiliates before U.S. military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This order marked a significant shift for the administration, which had contemplated the possibility of ending the Guantanamo operation and seeking instead to prosecute the accused terrorists in U.S. federal courts.4 With this occasion, the mechanics of and justifications for military tribunals catapulted back into public debate. Undoubtedly, future discussion on the propriety of Guantanamo trials will involve reference to one of the most important events in the evolution of military tribunals and their application of international law: the U.S. Nuremberg Military Tribunals (NMTs).5 In his 2011 book The Nuremberg Military Tribunals and the Origins of International Criminal Law (Tribunals), author Kevin Jon Heller embraces the challenge of detailing the individual NMTs, placing them in the proper historical context, and asserting an NMT legacy of spawning critical * Judge Advocate, U.S. Army. Student, 60th Judge Advocate Officer Graduate Course, The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School, U.S. Army, Charlottesville, Virginia. 1 KEvIN JON HELLER, THE NUREMBERG MILITARY TRIBUNALS AND THE ORIGINS OF INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL LAW (2011). 21d. at 299. Exec. Order No. 13,567, 76 Fed. Reg. 13,277 (Mar. 10, 2011). 4 Laura E. Jesse, Hopping on Bus for Hip Hopeful, SAN ANT. EXPR. NEWS, Nov. 18, 2007, at lB. 5 The Nuremberg Military Tribunals (NMTs) must be immediately distinguished from their more famous and publicized predecessors, the International Military Tribunals (IMTs), which also occurred in Nuremberg-but directly pursuant to the joint arrangements by and with the participation of all the Allied Powers following Germany's unconditional surrender in World War II. The NMTs, by contrast, and although sanctioned by existing agreements among the Allies, were a purely American-executed event as part of the United States' post-war duties in its role as occupier and transitional governing body of specific sections of Germany. While the IMT focused on the top-tier war criminals from Hitler's Nazi regime, the NMTs focused on many of the supporting role players such as the doctors, financiers, industrialists, and lower-level Government leaders. See WAR CRIMES, WAR CRIMINALS, AND WAR CRIMES TRIALS 9-13 (Norman E. Tutorow, ed., 1986). advancements in international criminal law.6 As Heller notes in his introduction, the primary purpose behind Tribunals was to fill what he perceived to be an inexplicable void in the scholarly writing coverage of the NMT.7 Through painstaking detail, the author discusses the nuances of each of the thirteen cases and their handling of critical legal issues such as procedure, evidence, defenses, and sentencing. Clearly proud of his own work, the author goes so far as referencing a U.S. federal appeals case and its misinterpretation of an NMT principle-stating, a bit presumptuously, that if this study had existed a few years ago, the court might have reached a very different conclusion.8 Unfortunately, the book proves only a partial success. While succeeding at the pure information game, the book falls painfully short in terms of flow and readability, leaving all but the most committed readers likely to abandon the struggle. Ultimately, today's Judge Advocates (JAs) may find select points to glean for professional development and satisfaction of historical curiosity, but this reviewer recommends that Heller's book be placed on the reference shelf for occasional consultation-not in the JA's critical kit-bag. II. The Good: Details, Depth and a Dash of Applicability Among the disappointments of Tribunals lie a few redemptive points. We should expect as much from Heller-an accomplished scholar, multi-published writer, and heralded blogger on the most current and controversial topics in international law.9 Accordingly, the reader will find a book meticulously researched and expansive in addressing the historical significance of the NMTs from all angles. The author arranges his 400-page work into five parts and sixteen chapters. Part I discusses the background to and formation of the Tribunals, as well as a factual synopsis of each of the twelve trials. Parts II, III, and IV are the meat of the book--offering sophisticated analysis of 6 HELLER, supra note 1, at 6-7. 7 Id. at 2. s Id. at 5 (referring to the court in Presbyterian Church of Sudan v. Talisman Energy, 582 F.3d 244 (2d Cir. 2009) and its apparently faulty reliance on the Nuremberg Trials for the proposition that aiding and abetting liability is conditioned on some kind of purposeful conduct). 9 See Dr. Kevin John Heller, MELBOURNE L. SCH., http://www.law.unimelb. edu.au/melbourne-law-school/communityour-stafflstaff-profileusername Kevin%20Jon%20Heller (last visited Mar. 26, 2012). -JANUARY 2012 • THE ARMY LAWYER • DA PAM 27-50-464

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