The article deals with the problem of the definition of aggression in the international law doctrine of the 1940s and the acts that determined the outcome of the Second World War – the documents of the Yalta, London, Potsdam Conferences of 1945, of the Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals, the UN and its bodies, etc. The article argues that during the period of the Second World War and the post-war settlement, the doctrine of international law did not create a new generalized theoretical definition of aggression acceptable to all or most states of the world. At the same time, we should talk about a mosaic of individual theoretical and normative novelties, which together indicate a significant development in the understanding of aggression. The main novelties in this area concerned: substantiation of the essence of aggression as a crime, definition of the subject of aggression’s commission and criminal liability for it, as well as distinction between its various forms. Each of the novelties is analyzed in detail.

The author comes to the conclusion that the persistent proclamation in the verdicts of the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals and in the very formula “crimes against peace” of the utopian opposition of the state’s aggression caused by internal causes and a just world community with immutable borders and a sincere desire for peace reflected the fragile compromise of the Allied Powers at the end of the Second World War. The dissenting and opposing ideas expressed during the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals about the unjust territorial and political status quo, the unnaturalness of imperialism, and the importance of economic and informational aggression reflected the new worldview orientations of the postwar era, which significantly influenced the development of the idea of just and unjust – not abstract – peace, the development of international justice, decolonization, the extension of international legal personality to national liberation movements, and other processes, and equally laid the foundation for a new period of development of the understanding of aggression in international law.       

Bibliography

Authored books

1. Brownlie I, International Law and the Use of Force by States (Clarendon Press 2002).

2. Grzebyk P, Criminal Responsibility for the Crime of Aggression (Routledge 2013).

3. Jørgensen N H B, The Responsibility of States for International Crimes (Oxford University Press 2000).

4. Lauterpacht H, Punishment of War Crimes. Memorandum 1942 (Committee on Crimes Against International Public Order) 2–3 <http://diginole.lib.fsu.edu/islandora/object/ fsu%3A547450> (accessed 01.12.2024).

5. Marrus M R, The Nuremberg War Crimes Trial 1945–46: A Documentary History (Bedford Books 1997).

6. Sayapin S, The Crime of Aggression in International Criminal Law: Historical Development, Comparative Analysis, and Present State (Asser Press 2014).

7. Sellars K, “Crimes against peace” and international law (Cambridge University Press 2024).

Edited books

8. Cryer R, ‘The Tokyo International Military Tribunal and Crimes Against Peace (Aggression): Is There Anything to Learn?’ in L N Sadat (еd), Seeking Accountability for the Unlawful Use of Force (Cambridge University Press 2018) 90–96.

9. Jackson R H, ‘Opening Address for the United States’ in Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression (United States Government Printing Office 1946) Vol. I. 166.

10. McDougall C, ‘The Crimes against Peace Precedent’, in C Kress, S Barriga (еd), The Crime of Aggression: A Commentary (Cambridge University Press 2017) Vol. I. 52–53.

11. Principles of International Law Recognized in the Charter of the Nürnberg Tribunal and in the Judgment of the Tribunal (S Barriga, C Kress (еd), Cambridge University Press 2012) 146–149.

12. Schabas W A, ‘Nuremberg and Aggressive War’, in L N Sadat (еd), Seeking Accountability for the Unlawful Use of Force (Cambridge University Press 2018) 61.

Journal articles

13. Kelsen H, ‘Collective and Individual Responsibility in International Law with Particular Regard to the Punishment of War Criminals’ [1943] 31 California Law Review 531.