[We may not get to cover all of this. Please note what is covered in the movie, text and in class.  The questions on torture are worthy of some reading of opposing views online. There are strong views on both sides of the thorny question of how to fight a war effectively even if one has to bend some normal rules of conscience.]

Human Rights/International Crimes

Judgment at Nuremberg film:

  --What was happening politically at the time of the judgment and what debate over these political events and the rendering of a judgment?

  --Note discussion on who knew what was happening in the concentration camps?

 --What examples of eugenics laws and anti-Semitic laws (outside of the concentration camps). The movie portrays one of each in a dramatic fashion.

        --reference to Bell  case

--Who was guilty for helping Hitler in power? Note defense argument.

--Why was Hitler able to come to power?

--Could the U.S. move in the direction of its courts violating basic human rights given domestic fears?

    --terrorism?

    --my country right or wrong?

    --you are with us or against us?

    --patriotism in a clash with democratic values?

--What was the reasoning of the Nuremberg court in deciding as it did?

--What reply to Janning did Judge Haywood give in the last scene in the prison when Janning said they did not know it would come to that (referring to the atrocities)?

--What = basic debate between ideas on positivist approach to law by judges cf injection of considerations of laws against humanity derived from conscience, natural law or other means resting on moralistic grounds?

         --Who sets the laws?

                --What is a crime against humanity?

--Note contemporary trials re: crimes against humanity/international crimes:

                --Bosnia/Kosovo 

                --Pinochet - almost!

                --Rwanda

--Should the United States become a member of the International Criminal Court? [We have signed but not ratified. Know the difference between signing and ratifying.]

--How does "torture" fit into war crimes idea? Is there a case for torture? If so when and why? This, of course, came up in Iraq at Abu Ghraib prison.

--Note Pentagon report on legal arguments that might be used as justification of various procedures that might be seen as torture

        --commander-in-chief constitutional authority

        --superior orders defense? 

        --torture defined

             --torture of one to save a thousand?/fact or fiction? -- opps, he/she really doesn't know anything, what then?

             --The existential question: who am I if I can torture? -- conscience at stake?

        --international treaties not applicable in Guantanamo?

     --a war crime by "them" but a utilitarian war necessity by "us"?

--Why go by the laws of war? Are they a contradiction to the very nature of war [War is hell?!]? Can one have a conscience in the midst of war?

                    --My Lai -- flash back into the past. The hypocrisy of the victor -- a universal phenomenon?

                    --moral legitimacy: home and abroad?