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Die Grenzen eines justiziellen Experiments. Der internationale Nürnberger Prozess und die US-amerikanischecolor line (1944–1951)

The limits of a judicial experiment. The international Nuremberg trial and the US “color line” (1944–1951)
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Zusammenfassung

Basierend auf einer berufs- und rechtssoziologischen Untersuchung zum internationalen Nürnberger Prozess (1945–46) und seiner spezifisch US-amerikanischen Vorgeschichte wird analysiert, ob und wenn ja, in welcher Weise dieser Prozess als Mobilisierungsressource gegen domestic racism im US-amerikanischen Recht (u. a. die sogennanten Jim Crow und anti-miscegenation laws, das one drop rule, die racial covenants) diente. Zwar war es den afroamerikanischen cause lawyers der NAACP, die seit Ende der 1930er Jahre die Strategie des test case vor dem Supreme Court entwickelt hatten, durchaus bewusst, dass die Nürnberger Definition der rassistischen Verbrechen kontextbedingt war. Bis auf einige wichtige Ausnahmen in den Jahren 1946–1949 zogen sie es deshalb vor, in ihren juristischen briefs auf die menschenrechtlichen Bestimmungen der UN-Charta zurückzugreifen. Doch eigneten sich die afroamerikanischen AktivistInnen das Nürnberger Strafrecht und die Form des internationalen Prozesses außerhalb der nationalen Gerichtssäle an: Sie versuchten, ihre Sache (cause) zu globalisieren, indem sie von 1946 bis 1951 Petitionen an die Vereinten Nationen richteten und so den strukturellen Rassismus einschließlich der ritualisierten Praxis der Lynchjustiz von Schwarzen im US-amerikanischen Süden anzuprangern. Diese Petitionen stützten sich auf die neuen Kategorien des internationalen Strafrechts (u. a. crime against humanity sowie genocide) und waren eindeutig von der US-Anklage gegen die nationalsozialistischen MachthaberInnen in Nürnberg inspiriert.

Abstract

On the basis of an investigation into the main Nuremberg trial (1945–46) and its specific US history from the perspectives of the sociology of law and the sociology of occupations, I analyze whether, and, if so, how far, these trials provided resources for activists fighting against domestic racism in US law (including the so-called Jim Crow and anti-miscegenation laws, the one-drop rule, and the racial covenants in real estate contracts). Cause lawyers working for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), who had been developing a test case strategy before the Supreme Court since the late 1930 s, were well aware that the Nuremberg definition of racist crime was overly contextual. Therefore, apart from a few important exceptions between 1946 and 1949, in their legal briefs, they preferred to rely on the human rights provisions of the UN Charter. However, outside of the national courtrooms, Afro-American activists took up the new legal tools devised for the main Nuremberg trial. They also appropriated the very form of the international trial, making it part of their repertoire of contention, as they attempted to globalize their cause by petitioning the United Nations from 1946 to 1951, aiming at an international condemnation of the systemic domestic racism, including the ritualized practice of lynching in the South. These petitions were based on the new categories of international criminal law (i. e. crime against humanity and genocide) and were clearly inspired by the US indictment of the Nazi leaders in Nuremberg.

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Published Online: 2020-02-08
Published in Print: 2020-02-25

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