Book Review: Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg: A New History of the International Military Tribunal after World War II
| Date | 01 August 2021 |
| Published date | 01 August 2021 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0964663920985142 |
| Author | Agata Fijalkowski |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Notes
1. In the year s 2009–2017, ‘White offend ers were given the shortes t custodial sentences on
average, and Asian or Black offenders were given the longest’ (Ministry of Justice, 2018),
2. Overwhelming the offence the study’s participants’ sentences were related to.
3. A notable omission from the study’s cohort and subsequent discussion are those early-stage
prisoners who successfully appeal their sentences or verdict. In order to better establish how
prison time aids or inhibits prisoners’ relationship to the events of their sentence offence, a
comparative study would be needed, between prisoners who do and do not maintain innocence
and who do and do not successfully appeal.
References
Chamberlen A (2018) Embodying Punishment: Emotions, Identities and Lived Experiences in
Women’s Prisons. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Clemmer D (1950) Observations on imprisonment as a source of criminality. Journal of Criminal
Law and Criminology 41(3): 311–319.
Cohen S and Taylor L (1972) Psychological Survival: The Experience of Long-term Imprisonment.
Bungay, Suffolk: The Chaucer Press.
Crewe B, Hulley S and Wright S (2019) Life Imprisonment from Young Adulthood: Adaption,
Identity and Time. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
House of Lords (1982) April 28 Debate (vol 429, col 870). Available at: http://bit.ly/2m9EDAW
(accessed 30 October 2020).
Irwin J (1970) The Felon. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Ministry of Justice (2018) Average Length of Custodial Sentences. Ethnicity Facts and Figures.
Available at: https://bit.ly/3jJBYWY (accessed 1 November 2020).
Sykes G (1958) The Society of Captives: A Study of a Maximum Security Prison. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press.
FRANCINE HIRSCH, Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg: A New History of the International Military
Tribunal after World War II. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2020, pp. 536,
ISBN 978-0-19-937793-0, USD34.95 (hbk).
Our interest in the Nuremberg trials never seems to cease. But have we been looking at
the right questions? The Nuremberg moment and the quest for international justice for
the atrocities carried out by the Germans during WW2 has largely been defined through
an Anglo-American lens. In total there were 13 trials carried out in the period 1945–
1949. The trials provided a legal framework for the development of the so-called Nur-
emberg principles, which meansaccountability for international crimes. Theevolution and
application of the legal principles pertaining to the punishment of genocide, for example,
continue to resonate. The 2010 EuropeanCourt of Human Rights case of Kononov v Latvia
[2010] ECHR 667,for example, showed what was at stake with respectto the legitimacy of
the Nuremberg principles, in its application to the Allies (Ma¨lksoo, 2 011).
Book Reviews 677
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