Henry King was the youngest American prosecutor at Nuremberg and a pioneer in international human rights law.
"Henry King is the George Washington of modern international law," said David M. Crane, a Syracuse University professor and chief prosecutor of Liberian Charles Taylor. "He launched a remarkable postwar campaign to prevent war and atrocities by agitating for the creation of a world in which human rights violators would know, to a certainty, that their crimes would be investigated and prosecuted," said Eli Rosenbaum, director of special investigations for the Justice Dept.
King was a law professor at Case Western Reserve University and a leader of the international law section of the American Bar Association. He helped launch the International Criminal Court in 1998 and start tribunals from Yugoslavia to Cambodia. He led a successful effort to give the Court jurisdiction over "wars of aggression" i.e. unprovoked wars.
"We're all party to the same race," King once said. "We have common rights, regardless of borders and geography and culture."
Just before he died, King was interviewed by Bill Kurtis about Cambodia's Khmer Rouge tribunal (this link also has interviews of the two surviving Nuremberg prosecutors in the U.S.) Here are two telling excerpts:
BILL KURTIS: What do you think about the United States really opting out?
HENRY KING: Well, I was one of those who pushed for the International Criminal Court and I’ve written a lot of articles on it. I think it’s monstrous that the United States has not participated in this. You’re developing a whole new phase of international law. Three former prosecutors, including myself, got aggressive war included in the Statute of the International Criminal Court, and now the Statute, or the people who are members the court, the 105 nations that are members of the court, including, by the way, the Japanese, are now drafting an amendment that would implement what the Rome Statute says about the prosecution of aggressive war.
The United States is on the outside looking in. We have a problem with not participating in international relations in terms of non- membership of the law of the sea, land mines convention--no membership there. We have to become part of the world again. I hope we become a part of the world under a new administration, but we need to shape international law because we’re a major power in the world today and we’re sitting on the outside, not even being a utility outfielder. We can’t turn our backs on the world. ...
BILL KURTIS: Final question, what advice would you give the Cambodia Tribunal, or the International Criminal Court, as a prosecutor from Nuremberg?
HENRY KING: Take the long view. Be persistent. Never give up. After all, we didn’t ever give up at Nuremberg. I haven’t given up over 60 years. Keep your eye on the future. Think of the future generations. That’s what you’ve got to think of because the weapons of destruction are becoming so violent that we’ll destroy ourselves if we don’t have a rule of law in the world.
Henry King was also involved with the Robert H. Jackson Center, named for the Supreme Court Justice and chief U.S. prosecutor at Nuremberg. Jackson's opening and closing statements for the prosecution should be studied by everyone concerned about the current legal and moral morass in which the United states finds itself. Pay special attention to the central role which the crime of war of aggression plays in Jackson's argument.
Documentation for the Erhard Milch case, which King tried, is available on line (unfortunately, only a small portion of the Nuremberg records can be accessed this way).