The legality of these trials and the judgments were widely criticized on the following
grounds: the trials were in violation of the principle of nullum poena sine lege (no punishment without law), trials were an imposition of ex post facto law, giving retrospective operation to a crime that was not punishable at the time of its commission, the tribunals were constituted by the victorious powers, whose impartiality in delivering the judgments was doubtful, consisting mainly of judges from the victorious States was in violation of the principle of nemo judex in causa sua (no one can be a judge in his own case), the plea of superior orders has great relevance in the discipline of the armed forces, and it was rejected by the Tribunals without any concrete reason.