The war guilt in Hannah Arendt and Karl Jaspers

Abstract

This essay reflects on Alan Norrie’s article “Justice on the slaughter bench: the problem of war guilt in Arendt and Jaspers”. In his article Norrie addresses the difficulties surrounding the attribution of guilt for crimes against humanity committed by the Nazi regime during WWII. The attribution of guilt offered by criminal law against such crimes does not entail forms of collective guilt, which are generally beyond the scope of criminal law doctrine. Although criminal law does not seem to be the only mechanism to attribute guilt for crimes committed during totalitarian regimes, it has become the most common mechanism to resolve the atrocities of the past.

Keywords: guilt (criminal responsibility), international criminal law, transitional justice, human rights, crimes against humanity.