Martens Clause - Judicial Review

Judicial Review

Several national and international courts have considered the Martens Clause when making their judgements. In none of these cases however have the laws of humanity or the dictates of the public conscience been recognised as new and independent right. The clause served rather as general statement for humanitarian principles as well as guideline to the understanding and interpretation of existing rules of international law.

The Martens Clause was quoted in the following judicial rulings:

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  • Decision of the Supreme Court of Norway on 27 February 1946 in appeal proceedings against Karl-Hans Hermann Klinge, Kriminalassistent of the Gestapo (confirmation of the death sentence imposed by the first instance)
  • Decision of the US military tribunal III in Nuremberg on 10 February 1948 in the case United States v. Krupp
  • Decision of the Netherlands court of cassation on 12 January 1949 in the procedure against SS-Obergruppenführer Hanns Rauter, general commissioner for the safety organization in the Netherlands from 1940 to 1945
  • Decision Brussels military courts (Conseil de guerre de Bruxelles) in the K.W.. case on 8 February 1950
  • Decision of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia on 8 March 1996 over the permission of the accusation during the process against Milan Martić (case IT-95-11, decision IT-95-11-R61)
  • Decision of the Constitutional Court of Colombia of 18 May 1995 for the constitutionality of Protocol II Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts. (decision C-225/95)
  • The International Court of Justice advisory opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons issued on 8 July 1996
  • Judgement of the German Federal Constitutional Court on 26 October 2004 for the compatibility of the expropriations in the former Soviet zone of occupation between 1945 and 1949 with international law (decision BVerfG, 2 BvR 955/00 of 26.10.2004)

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