Movie Review, Political Science

International politics, Movie Analysis
Project description
Instructions are attached.

International Politics Movie Analysis 2
Judgment at Nuremberg
(dir. Stanley Kramer, 1961)
Spring 2014
Hard copy due to your TA at the beginning of Week 13’s recitation
section. AT MOST 2 PAGES, double spaced.
You are encouraged to discuss potential answers to the questions with fellow
classmates. However, the writeup must be
entirely
your own.
Judgment at Nuremberg
portrays a military tribunal convened in Nuremberg, Germany after
World War II and is strongly based on the real Nuremberg Military Tribunals that were held
from 1946-1949. The lm follows the experiences of Chief Trial Judge Haywood who is hearing a
case against four German judges and prosecutors charged with crimes against humanity for their
involvement in atrocities committed by the Nazi regime. The trial in the lm, and the real trials
on which the lm is based, appeal to international law. Thoroughly answer the following questions
in 2 pages or less:
1.
The German defendants are accused of acts that were
legal
according to German law enacted
by the Reichstag. However, the military tribunal nds all four defendants guilty. In what
sense did the defendants commit \illegal” acts? (In your answer, be sure to explain what
international law is and why it can dier from national law).
2.
Finding the four defendants guilty set a precedent for future cases.
(a)
What precedent did this ruling (and others like it) set for the responsibilities of ocials
working under internationally criminal regimes? That is, if a regime creates a law
implementing a crime against humanity, what is a government ocial whose job it is to
enforce the law required to do according to international law?
(b)
Do you nd this reasonable? Why or why not?
3.
At the end of the lm, the audience is informed that of the 99 defendants sentenced to prison
terms at the Nuremberg Trials, not one was still serving his sentence at the time the movie
was released. Why might the military tribunal still be important for international wellbeing
even if most of the sentences issued by the tribunal were shortened afterwards?
4.
Some call on Judge Haywood to be lenient in his ruling so that the US might gain Germany’s
support in the Cold War. He declines and nds the four defendants guilty anyway. Why
might leniency have been damaging to international law and to the security of human rights
in the future?
PLACE THIS ORDER OR A SIMILAR ORDER WITH US TODAY AND GET AN AMAZING DISCOUNT 🙂