80 años después del nacimiento del criterio de la responsabilidad penal individual en el Derecho penal internacional: Murray Bernays, el Estatuto del Tribunal Militar Internacional de Núremberg y la Empresa Criminal Conjunta

• Mario Martin Pereira Garmendia ^[1] ; Diego Alberto Zapata Gonzales ^[2]
  1. [1] Universidad de Navarra

     Universidad de Navarra

     Pamplona, España

     
  2. [2] Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola

     Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola

     Perú

     
• Localización: Revista Jurídica Digital UANDES, ISSN-e 0719-7942, Vol. 10, Nº. 1, 2026, págs. 1-31
• Idioma: español
• Títulos paralelos:
  • 80 years after the birth of the international criminal law criterion for individual criminal accountability: Murray Bernays, the Statute of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, and the Joint Criminal Enterprise
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo (pdf)
• Resumen
  • español

    A medida que el régimen nacionalsocialista alemán declinaba, y la victoria de los Aliados resultaba inevitable, se empezó a pergeñar los lineamientos políticocriminales para enjuiciar a los responsables de las principales atrocidades nazis. Mismo enfoque que también se aplicaría a los responsables del Imperio de Japón. Gracias al ingenio de Murray Bernays –el verdadero artífice del Derecho Penal Internacional–, se sentaron las bases dogmáticas sobre las que se sustenta dicha rama del Derecho Penal, cuyo objetivo es el enjuiciamiento y castigo de los crímenes internacionales (hoy en día: genocidio, crímenes contra la humanidad y agresión internacional). Como se demostrará en este ensayo, estas bases son, en esencia, la imputación objetiva y subjetiva de la responsabilidad penal, constituidas conforme a los parámetros de específicos institutos jurídicos (de raíces anglosajonas): la Conspiracy, la Membership y la Common Design. Sobre estas bases, estableció un modelo de imputación en dos velocidades: una primera, asociada a los jerarcas civiles y militares del régimen y a las personas jurídicas creadas para la realización del plan criminal; y una segunda, asociada a los mandos intermedios y a los ejecutores directos. Todo ello dio lugar a lo que hoy reconocemos (principalmente gracias a la jurisprudencia del Tribunal Penal Internacional para la ex Yugoslavia) como empresa criminal conjunta. Profundizar en los orígenes de este criterio de imputación ayudará a vislumbrar su íntima conexión con las figuras típicas centrales del Derecho Penal Internacional, así como con la lógica preventiva y represiva subyacente, consustancial a sus normas penales primarias.

  • English

    As the German National Socialist regime declined and Allied victory became likely, a policy was set to prosecute those responsible for its major atrocities. The same approach was applied to the Empire of Japan. It was only the genius of Murray Bernays (the true architect of International Criminal Law) that laid the dogmatic foundations on which this branch of criminal law is based, the purpose of which is the prosecution and punishment of international crimes (today: genocide, crimes against Humanity, and international aggression). As will be shown in this essay, these bases are, in essence, objective and subjective imputation of criminal liability, constituted following the parameters of specific legal institutes (of Anglo-Saxon roots): conspiracy, membership, and standard design Theory. On this basis, he established a model of imputation in two stages, the first associated with the civilian and military hierarchs of the regime and the legal entities created for the achievement of the criminal plan, and a second stage associated with the middle commanders and direct executors. All this gave rise to what we recognize today (mainly due to the jurisprudence of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia) as Joint Criminal Enterprise. Diving into the origins of this criterion of imputation will help to glimpse its intimate connection with the central typical figures of international criminal law, as well as the underlying preventive and repressive logic, consubstantial to its primary criminal norms.

• Referencias bibliográficas
  • Bassiouni, C. (2008). The Nuremberg legacy. En M. Mettraux (Ed.), Perspectives on the Nuremberg Trial. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199232338....
  • Bazyle, M. & Terkheimer, F. (2014). Forgotten trials of the Holocaust. New York University Press.
  • De Mildt, D. (1996). In the name of the people: Perpetrators and genocide in the reflection of their post-war prosecution in West Germany....
  • Deguzman, M. (2020). Shocking the conscience of humanity. Gravity and the legitimacy of international criminal law. Oxford University Press.
  • Drumbl, M. A. (2005). Collective violence and individual punishment: The criminality of mass atrocity. Northwestern University Law Review,...
  • Falk, R. (1985). The Grotian moment. En International Law: A Contemporary Perspective (nº 7). Boulder.
  • Fletcher, G. (2000). Rethinking criminal law (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.
  • George, J. (2014). Göering cross-examined. Q Press.
  • Gillies, P. (1990). The law of criminal conspiracy (2nd ed.). The Federation Press.
  • Guildfoyle, D. (2016). International criminal law. Oxford University Press.
  • Heller, K. J. (2011). The Nuremberg military tribunals and the origins of international criminal law. Oxford University Press.
  • Hilton, F. O. (2004). The Dachau defendants: Life stories from testimony and documents of the war crimes prosecutions. McFarland & Company...
  • Jackson, R. (2008). Nuremberg in retrospect: Legal answer to international lawlessness. En M. Mettraux (Ed.), Perspectives on the Nuremberg...
  • Jardim, T. (2012). The Mauthausen trial: American military justice in Germany. Harvard University Press.
  • Jescheck, H. (2008). The development of international criminal law after Nuremberg. En M. Mettraux (Ed.), Perspectives on the Nuremberg Trial....
  • Leventhal, H., Harris, S., Woolsey, J., & Farr, A. (1947). The Nuremberg verdict. Harvard University Press.
  • Marrus, M. R. (2017). The Nuremberg war crimes trial of 1945-46: A brief history with documents. St. Martin Press.
  • Mir Puig, S. (2008). Derecho penal, parte general (9th ed.). BdeF.
  • Morris, D. (2017). Politics, ethics, and natural law in early twentieth-century Germany, 1900-1950. En J. Michalczyk (Ed.), Nazi law. From...
  • Nollkaemper, A. (2009). Introduction. En A. Nollkaemper & W. van der Wildt (Eds.), System criminality in international law. Cambridge...
  • Ohlin, J. (2007). Three conceptual problems with the doctrine of joint criminal enterprise. Journal of International Criminal Justice, 5.
  • Ohlin, J. (2011). Joint intentions to commit international crimes. The Chicago Journal of International Law, 11(2).
  • Olásolo Alonso, H. (2013). Tratado de autoría y participación en Derecho Penal Internacional. En Homenaje al Prof. Augusto Ramírez Campos....
  • Paz, F. (2016). Núremberg. Juicio al nazismo. La esfera de los libros.
  • Pereira Garmendia, M. (2016). La responsabilidad por los delitos atroces, genocidio y lesa humanidad. Estructuras institucionales inicuas...
  • Pereira Garmendia, M. (2023). The criminal responsibility of Vladimir Putin and associates: Is it possible to hold them accountable to justice...
  • Remy, S. (2017). The Malmedy massacre: The war crimes trial controversy. Harvard University Press.
  • Röling, B. V. A. (2008). The Nuremberg and the Tokyo trials in retrospect. En M. Mettraux (Ed.), Perspectives on the Nuremberg Trial. Oxford...
  • Scharf, M. (2010). Seizing the “Grotian moment”: Application of joint criminal enterprise liability to the proceedings of the Cambodian genocide...
  • Silva Sánchez, J.-M. (2008). La intervención a través de una organización: ¿Una forma moderna de participación en el delito? En J.-M. Silva...
  • Silva Sánchez, J.-M. (2025). Derecho Penal. Parte general. Civitas.
  • Smith, B. (1982). The American road to Nuremberg: The documentary record 1944-45. Hoover Institution Press Publication.
  • Taylor, T. (2022). Anatomía de los juicios de Núremberg: Memorias (A. González Linacero, Trad.). Berg Institute.
  • Tusa, J. & Tusa, A. (2010). The Nuremberg trial. Skyhorse Publishing.
  • Van Sliedregt, E. (2012). Individual criminal responsibility in international law. Oxford University Press.
  • Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, May 23, 1969, 1155 U.N.T.S. 331; UN Doc. A/CONF.39/27.
  • Weinberg, G. (2009). The setting and the significance of the Nuremberg trials: A historian's principle. En A. Stoltzfus & S. Friedlander...
  • Werle, G. (2013). Pasado, presente y futuro del tratamiento jurídico-penal de los crímenes internacionales. Hammurabi.
  • Werle, G. & Jessberger, F. (2020). Principles of international criminal law (4th ed.). Oxford University Press.