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62 Pol. Sci. Q. 1 (1947)

handle is hein.journals/pclscceqry62 and id is 1 raw text is: Volume L XII] POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY THE CRIME OF AGGRESSION AND THE FUTURE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW * T would be unnatural if so dramatic and epochal an event as the trial of the major German and Japanese war criminals had not elicited sharply divergent views on the wisdom of the policy and on the soundness of the law. The fact which confronts us today is that the trials have been held, although in Japan they have not yet been completed. The problem which confronts us today is only very secondarily that of historical judgment; primarily the problem is to find the ways in which the precedent can be turned to its greatest use in promoting the future peace and welfare of mankind. If the foundation on which we are to build is weak, it can be strengthened before a new structure is erected upon it. One way to strengthen the foundation was suggested by Judge Biddle in his report to the President on the Nuremberg Trials, when he urged that the Charter of the Tribunal, which was promulgated with the approval of nineteen United Nations, be now approved for the future by formal act of all fifty-four members of the United Nations. The General Assembly of the United Nations acted upon this suggestion by adopting a resolution prepared by its Legal Com- mittee instructing the Codification Committee to study the subject and report back to the Assembly. But the resolution also contained the following affirmation of the principles con- tained in the Nuremberg Charter: *This article was prepared as a paper read before a meeting of the American Historical Association in New York, December 30, 1946. (1) March Z947 [Number r