William Schabas on the conviction of two officers of a German submarine of ‘an offence against the law of nations’ during the first world war

Sidney Blumenthal referred to a 1945 war crimes judgment on the killing of seamen who had survived an attack at sea during the second world war (Does Pete Hegseth even believe that war crimes exist?, 8 December). There is an even earlier case. In a trial held by a German court pursuant to the treaty of Versailles (1919), two officers of U-86 were convicted of “an offence against the law of nations” for attacking survivors after the sinking of a Canadian hospital ship, the Llandovery Castle, off the coast of Ireland in the final months of the first world war. The judges said the rule against such attacks was “simple” and “universally known”. They rejected the defence argument that the officers were following orders of the submarine’s captain. They said such an order was manifestly unlawful. The precedent is still cited today and is codified in the Rome statute of the international criminal court.
William Schabas
Professor of international law, Middlesex University