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15 J. Juris 353 (2012)
Francis Biddle and the Nuremberg Legacy: Waking the Human Conscience

handle is hein.journals/jnljur15 and id is 89 raw text is: THE JOURNALJURISPRUDENCE FRANCIS BIDDLE AND THE NUREMBERG LEGACY: WAKING THE HUMAN CONSCIENCE Tara Helfman1 I. INTRODUCTION On 1 October 1 1945, former United States Attorney General Francis Biddle embarked for Europe on the Queen Mary. The weather was unseasonably hot and the boat was filthy, covered in graffiti left by soldier transports. Only the day before, Biddle was being feted in Washington, D.C., where he had been sworn in as the American member of the International Military Tribunal for the Trial of German Major War Criminals, the Nuremberg Tribunal.' Now he was heading to war-ravaged Germany to help oversee what President Harry S. Truman would call 'the first international criminal assize in history. Biddle was accompanied by his advisors, Assistant Attorney General Herbert Wechsler and Quincey Wright of the University of Chicago.5 The men were already vigorously discussing 1 Assistant Professor, Syracuse University College of Law; Yale Law School, J.D.; University of Cambridge, M.Phil., Political Thought & Intellectual History; University College London, M.A., Legal & Political Theory; Queens College, CUNY, B.A., Histor. The author wishes to thank Professor Thomas Boudreau for his guidance and support while she was writing this article. Any faults are entirely the authors own. 2 Francis Biddle Collection of International Military Tribunal Nuremberg Trial Documents and Related Material, Syracuse University, New York (Biddle Collection) Box 1, Journal, 2 October 1945. Two works identify the ship as the Queen Elizabeth. See, eg, Joseph E. Persico, A.uremberg: Inlam, on Trial (1994) 77; Ann and John Tusa, The Nuremberg Trial (1984) 116. However, Biddle in his own journal identifies it as the Queen Mag. 3 Biddle Collection, above n 2, Box 1, Journal, 2 October 1945. 4 US Department of'State Bulletin, Vol. 15 (27 October 1946) 755. 5 From 1944 to 1946, Wechsler served as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the War Division. He was a member of the Columbia faculty throughout his career, also serving as Director of the American Law Institute for 21 years. In Memoriam: Herbert Wechsler, 1909-2000, American Law Institute Reporter (2000), American Law Institute, http://www.ali.org/ali old/R2204 Wechsler.htm at 16 August 2012; Tamar Lewin, Herbert Wechsler, Legal Giant, Is Dead at 90, Ve)w York Times, 28 April 2000. During WWII, Quincey \Wright served as an advisor on international law to the Department of State and the Foreign Economic Administration. Dr. Quincy Wright, 79, Is Dead; Authority on International Law, INew York Times, 18 October 1970, 92. He subsequently served as President of the American Society of International Law from 1955 to 1956. The American Society of International Law Presidents Galler, http://www.asil.org/asilpresidents.html, at 18 August 2012. (2012) J. JURIs 353

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