War Criminals: Their Prosecution and Punishment

by Sheldon Glueck

First published in 1944, War Criminals: Their Prosecution and Punishment by Harvard professor Sheldon Glueck is a landmark examination of one of the defining legal questions of the Second World War: how should those responsible for atrocities and violations of the laws of war be brought to justice?

Written while the war was still raging, Glueck examines the historical and legal foundations for prosecuting war criminals, the liability of political and military leaders, superior orders, international criminal courts, appropriate forms of trial, and the principles governing punishment and correction. The book also considers the failures of attempts to prosecute German war criminals after the First World War and argues for a more effective international system of justice.

Both a historical document and an important contribution to the development of international criminal law, this book captures the legal thinking that helped prepare the ground for the postwar prosecution of Nazi leaders and the emergence of modern international criminal justice.

New York Knopf. 1944. 261p.