Tu quoque defense

The tu quoque defense (Latin for 'you too') asserts that the authority trying a defendant has committed the same crimes of which they are accused.^[1][2] It is related to the legal principle of clean hands,^[3] reprisal,^[4] and "an eye for an eye".^[5] The tu quoque defense does not exist in international criminal law and has never been accepted by an international court.^[6][7]

Tu quoque was invoked during the Nuremberg trials.^[8] In the trial of Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, the controversial lawyer Jacques Vergès argued that during the Algerian War, French officers such as General Jacques Massu had committed war crimes similar to those with which Barbie was being charged, and therefore the French state had no moral right to try Barbie. This defence was rejected by the court, which convicted Barbie.^[9]

See also

• Superior orders
• Tu quoque
• Victor's justice

References

1. Rohan, Colleen; Zyberi, Gentian (2017). "Tu quoque". Defense Perspectives on International Criminal Justice. Cambridge University Press. p. 513. ISBN 978-1-108-16164-0.
2. Yee, Sienho (2004). "The Tu Quoque Argument as a Defense to International Crimes, Prosecution or Punishment". Chinese Journal of International Law. 3: 87–134. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.cjilaw.a000519.
3. Herstein, Ori J. (2011). "A Normative Theory of the Clean Hands Defense". Legal Theory. 17 (3): 171–208. doi:10.1017/S1352325211000152. S2CID 54885813.
4. Bassiouni, M. Cherif (1999). "Tu quoque". Crimes Against Humanity in International Criminal Law. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 502. ISBN 978-90-411-1222-4.
5. Ambos, Kai (2013). Treatise on International Criminal Law: Volume 1: Foundations and General Part. Oxford University Press. p. 393. ISBN 978-0-19-164886-1.
6. Borrelli, Katerina (2019). "Between show-trials and Utopia: A study of the tu quoque defence". Leiden Journal of International Law. 32 (2): 315–331. doi:10.1017/S0922156519000074. ISSN 0922-1565. S2CID 150483134.
7. Guilfoyle, Douglas (2016). "Reprisals and tu quoque". International Criminal Law. Oxford University Press. p. 388–. ISBN 978-0-19-872896-2.
8. Becker, Steven W. (2006). "From Breisach to Rome: The Defense of Obedience to Superior Orders and Tu Quoque in the Aftermath of Nuremberg". Caiete de Drept Penal. 2006: 22.
9. Cohen, William (2002). "The Algerian War, the French State and Official Memory". Réflexions Historiques. 28 (2): 219-239 [p. 230]. JSTOR 41299235.