Details
- A major new work on an under-studied tribunal, offering a considerable advance over earlier attempts to understand the IMT
- Based on considerable new archival research by the authors, bringing new documents and perspectives to light
- Takes full account of the secondary Japanese literature on the Tribunal
- Examines the Tribunal from a variety of perspectives, including a full analysis of the Tribunal's contribution to international criminal law, and setting the tribunal in its political and historical contexts.
The Tokyo International Military Tribunal (IMT) is not frequently discussed in the literature on international criminal law, and it is often thought that it was little more (and possibly less) than a footnote to the Nuremberg proceedings. This work seeks to dispel this widely held belief, by showing the way in which the Tokyo IMT was both similar and different to its Nuremberg counterpart, the extent to which the critiques of the Tokyo IMT have purchase, and the Tribunal's contemporary relevance. The book also shows how the IMT needs to be treated, not just as one overarching entity, but also as being made up of different sets of people, who made up the prosecution, the defence and the judges. These disagreed with each other, and at times internally, over the way in which the trial should proceed, and the book shows how each had an impact on the proceedings.
The book is a comprehensive legal analysis of the Tokyo IMT, covering its law, theory, practice and the lessons it may teach to those prosecuting and defending international crimes today. It also places the trial in its political and historical context. The work is based in part on extensive archival research undertaken by the authors, which has unearthed large quantities of documents that have previously been ignored by those who have studied the Tribunal.
Readership: Postgraduate students and scholars in international law, in particular those interested in international criminal law or the theory of international law. The book will also be of interest to international relations scholars and historians of the Second World War.
1: Introduction: The Background to the Trial
2: The Establishment of the Tokyo IMT
3: The Defendants and the Charges
4: The Conduct of the Trial
5: Aggression
6: The Murder Charges
7: War Crimes
8: General Principles of Liability and Defences
9: The Sentences
10: The Philosophies of the Tokyo IMT
11: The Legacy of the Trial
12: Conclusions
Neil Boister, Associate Professor, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, and Robert Cryer, Professor ofInternational and Criminal Law, University of Birmingham
"This reappraisal of the Tokyo IMT is an outstanding scholarly effort and well-worth the hefty price tag for any scholar, jurist, practitioner or institution interested in building its expertise in the area of international criminal law. Boister and Cryer are to be commended for providing a much needed addition to the literature..." - The Modern Law Review 72 (2)
"This meticulously well-researched, well-structured and generally well-written book certainly deserves a wide readership not just among its primary target audience of international lawyers, but also among students of Japanese history, politics and law." - Richard Nottage and Luke Nottage, New Zealand Yearbook of International Law
"[This book provides a] meticulous analysis of the material...[and] a detailed and nuanced analysis of the legal issues arising from th[e] trial." - Kirsten Sellars, Global Law Books
