Some precedents in international criminal law can be found in the time before World War I. However , it was only after the war that a truly international crime tribunal was envisaged to try perpetrators of crimes committed in this period . Thus , the Treaty of Versailles stated that an international tribunal was to be set up to try Wilhelm II of Germany . In the event , however , the Kaiser was granted asylum in the Netherlands . After World War II , the Allied powers set up an international tribunal to try not only war crimes , but crimes against humanity committed under the Nazi regime . The Nuremberg Tribunal held its first session in 1945 and pronounced judgments on 30 September / 1 October 1946 . A similar tribunal was established for Japanese war crimes ( the International Military Tribunal for the Far East ) . It operated from 1946 to 1948
Japanese war crimes
Japanese war crimes
International criminal law