How the Holocaust reshaped modern justice — and why it still matters today

Published January 7, 2026

View of the judges’ bench at the Nuremberg Trials, 1945–1946. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park.

As part of its monthly educational series, the Law Library Association of St. Louis, a public and membership law library located in the Cahill Courts Building (formerly known as the Civil Courts Building) in downtown St. Louis, is presenting a program in January focusing on the Nuremberg trials and the birth of international justice in their wake. The program, “From Nurenberg to the Hague: The Holocaust and the Birth of International Justice,” will take place virtually on Wednesday, Jan. 21 from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.

Marking the 80th anniversary of the landmark Nuremberg Trial, this continuing legal education (CLE) program explores the International Military Tribunal of 1945–1946 and the subsequent Nuremberg proceedings. Together, these trials created an unprecedented evidentiary record documenting the Holocaust and established the legal groundwork for prosecuting atrocity crimes. Our speaker will examine the Doctors’, Judges’, and Einsatzgruppen Trials, trace Raphael Lemkin’s formulation of the term “genocide,” and consider the enduring significance of Nuremberg’s legacy for the 21st century.

The program’s speaker is Isaac Amon, an attorney, legal scholar and lecturer at Washington University School of Law. He also serves as executive director and scholar-in-chief of the Sinai Legal Association for Memory and Modernity (SLAMM). His previous roles include legal fellow at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, legislative director at the Missouri Department of Corrections and investigator of ISIS war crimes.

This program is being presented in commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day, which takes place on Tuesday Jan. 27.

This program is open to the public. Those not seeking CLE credit may attend without paying the registration fee. The program is co-sponsored by the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis.

To learn more about the program and to register, go to https://llastl.org/CLE-0121-26. For questions about the program, contact Library Director Gail Wechsler at [email protected] or 314-622-4470.