After Nuremberg: The Trial of Alexander Löhr and the Boundaries of Civilian Protection

This article analyses the 1947 Yugoslav trial of General Alexander Löhr, the highest-ranking Wehrmacht officer prosecuted in post-war Yugoslavia, in order to demonstrate how a small socialist state both adapted and extended the legacy of the Nuremberg trials. Building on its involvement in the International Military Tribunal, Yugoslavia combined principles of international criminal law with its own partisan legal traditions to create a hybrid legal framework. The proceedings against Löhr addressed three central issues: the legality of strategic bombing, the recognition of partisans as lawful combatants, and the criminalization of reprisals. By rejecting restrictive interpretations of international criminal law, Yugoslav military courts anticipated subsequent codifications in the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols. Thus, the trial was both an act of national accountability and an intervention in the global evolution of the laws of war, asserting Yugoslavia’s legal sovereignty and moral authority in the early Cold War era.