The northcroft plaster plane

William Patrick and “Crimes Against Peace” at the Tokyo Tribunal, 1946–1948

“…102 The arguments presented by Mei, Northcroft and Webb on naked conspiracy were potent enough, but Patrick vigorously opposed them -to the extent, Northcroft recounted, of threatening to dissent on this matter from the majority Judgment. 103 Although there was no principle preventing conviction of separate crimes arising from the same transaction, Patrick regarded the conspiracy to wage aggressive war as more serious even than the waging of war, because "those who conceive and develop the purpose of waging an aggressive war are much more blameworthy than those who later participate on the waging". 104 The concept of 186 the edinburgh law review Vol 15 2011 naked conspiracy was retained in the majority judgment, possibly because of the force of Patrick's argument, and certainly because some of the defendants would have been acquitted had they not been implicated in the conspiracy.…”