80th Anniversary of the Nuremberg Judgment | Master lecture by Prof. William Schabas and an international discussion panel - Instytut Pileckiego

On Thursday, 1 October 2026, on the 80th anniversary of the judgment in the trial of the major German war criminals, an open seminar will be held at the seat of the Pilecki Institute in Warsaw. The event will include a master lecture by Prof. William Schabas and an international discussion panel featuring scholars of international law.

While the Judgment of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg of 1 October 1946 defined the foundations of contemporary criminal law, it also left a number of legal omissions and political compromises. The failure to account for Soviet crimes, the exclusion of sexual violence from the Tribunal’s jurisdiction, and no mention of the Katyn question in Judge Nikitchenko’s dissenting opinion – these issues translate directly into the impotence of international institutions in the face of armed aggression and hybrid warfare.

– 1 October 2026 marks the 80th anniversary of the Judgment of the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremberg, which was a watershed moment for the development of international criminal law – emphasized Dr. Dominika Uczkiewicz from the Pilecki Institute.

– In the aftermath of the war, the Nuremberg principles greatly influenced the models for prosecuting and punishing Axis crimes before national courts of the Allied states, as well as the work of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. On this occasion, we would like to invite you to a lecture by Prof. William Schabas and an expert discussion, both of which will be devoted to the contemporary legacies of the Nuremberg trial – said Dr. Uczkiewicz, a lawyer and assistant professor at the Pilecki Institute’s Center for Totalitarian Studies.

Date: 01.10.2026 | Time: 17:00–20:00 | Venue: Pilecki Institute, 82 Sienna Street, Warsaw, admission free

Program

• 17:00–18:15 – Master lecture: Nuremberg’s Enigmas – Prof. William Schabas
• 18:15–18:30 – Break
• 18:30–20:00 – Expert discussion: The Nuremberg Judgment: The Legacy and Challenges for International Law

Reassessing the Nuremberg legacy

The Judgment of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg marked a turning point in the normative world order after 1945. The principles set forward in the Nuremberg Charter were affirmed by the UN General Assembly in its resolution of 11 December 1946, becoming a permanent point of reference for the International Law Commission and the judicial procedures before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo.

The planned meeting marks the next stage of the Pilecki Institute’s research program devoted to analyzing the Nuremberg Trial from the perspective of Central and Eastern European countries. While the 2025 academic conference focused on the contribution of smaller states in the region to the definition of crimes subject to the tribunal’s jurisdiction, this year emphasis will be placed on the omitted categories of crimes and victim groups, as well as on the political factors influencing the composition of the judicial bench.

In his opening lecture, Prof. William Schabas will focus on issues that continue to spark doctrinal debate. He will analyze the legal reasoning behind the recognition of the crime of aggression as the supreme crime, the exoneration of German admirals from the charge of waging unrestricted submarine warfare, and the circumstances surrounding the omission of the Katyn massacre in the dissenting opinion of Judge Iona Nikitchenko, who represented the Soviet Union.

Crimes absent from the docket and contemporary battlefields

The discussion panel will focus on the structural shortcomings of the Nuremberg legal framework and the attempts to compensate for them in the subsequent decades:

• The omission of sexual and gender-based crimes (SGBC): Marie Wilmet will analyze the exclusion of sexual crimes from the subject-matter scope of the IMT Charter. Despite the availability of evidence and witness testimonies during the 1946 trial, crimes affecting women and minorities remained outside the scope of legal adjudication, which heavily influenced the standards for prosecuting such acts until the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in 1993.
• The settlement of Soviet crimes and the weaponization of history: Dr. Dovilė Sagatienė will discuss the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights in post-Soviet cases after 2004 in light of the principle of legality (Article 7 ECHR), the unlawfulness of the occupation of the Baltic States, and the classification of acts as genocide. She will also analyze the Council of Europe’s instruments for the protection of historical narratives in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which was justified by Moscow with quasi-historical arguments.
• The capacity of international tribunals: participants will compare the Nuremberg model of justice with the case law of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, assessing the ability of contemporary law to respond to asymmetric conflicts, cyber attacks, and disinformation operations.