Accountability for War Crimes in the Policy of the Polish Government-In-Exile - (Studies in the History of International Law) (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book uncovers the overlooked contributions of Polish and Eastern European jurists to the origins of international criminal law, showing how the Polish government-in-exile's war crimes policy helped shape Allied thinking and the Nuremberg framework during the Second World War.

Book Synopsis

This book excavates the often neglected role of the Polish government-in-exile within the Allied war crimes trial programme and post-1945 international law. Drawing on newly examined archival sources and biographies of key émigré lawyers, it reveals how Polish and other European jurists helped define the concept of accountability for wartime atrocities long before the Allies convened at Nuremberg. Combining legal and historical approaches, this book traces the Central and Eastern European influences on the UN War Crimes Commission and Allied policy, showing how their ideas about justice, responsibility, victim's perspective, and law continue to resonate in modern interpretations of the legacy of Nuremberg.

About the Author

Dominika Uczkiewicz, Ph.D. (2020), University of Wroclaw, is a lawyer and historian working as an assistant professor at the Centre for Totalitarian Studies at the Pilecki Institute in Warsaw. Her research interests include transitional justice, legal history, international criminal law, and war crimes trials after the Second World War. Recently, she co-edited The Russian-Ukrainian Conflict and War Crimes. Challenges for Documentation and International Prosecution (Routledge, 2024).