"1. Until very recently, the punishment of war crimes was a task entrusted to domestic tribunals.
Nuremberg and Tokyo were exceptions only in part, since the winner, which occupied the whole
territory of the loser, established the two Tribunals. The winner was able to exercise its jurisdiction
after the complete debellatio of the enemy. National jurisdictions are often accused of partiality:
they do not indict their own nationals for war crimes or, if they do, inflict only lenient penalties;
conversely, national tribunals are more severe towards crimes committed by nationals belonging
to the enemy State. One of the reasons why international tribunals have been established is that
war crimes, and international crimes in general, should not go unpunished. Belligerents should be equal before the law and if their nationals commit war crimes they should be punished, whether they
belong to the winning or the losing side. Equality and not partiality should be the characteristic
of the international tribunals."