From the judgement: The Law of the Charter, The Nuremberg Charter, 1945:
”… the very essence of the Charter is that individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience imposed by the individual State. He who violates the laws of war cannot obtain immunity while acting in pursuance of the authority of the State, if the State in authorising action moves outside its competence under international law.”
Principle IV: “The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him”
Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal 1945
Sources
- http://home.earthlink.net/~platter/nuremberg/judgement-law-of-charter.html
- Old link: http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/imt/tgmwc/judgment/j-law-charter-02.html
- Old link: http://www.actionagainstwar.org/legaldutytobreakthelaw.html
Texts on civil disobedience and resistance
Start
Thoreau: Civil Disobedience – 1849
Discourse on Voluntary Servitude – 1548
The Tyranny of Structurelessness
Emma Goldman: Against Mass Movement
Anti-Mass
Deleuze and becoming resistance
Civil disobedience Duty rather than a right
Albert Einstein – Obedience or intervention
Overcome Masculine Oppression Bill Moyers
Plowshares movement
Manual for Civil Disobedience
Postprotest Resistance
Texts by Per Herngren
Kurdish, Polish
Arabic, Spanish, Dutch