The Eichmann trial: an ethical view
https://doi.org/10.17803/1994-1471.2019.99.2.051-061
Abstract
The Eichmann Trial was conceived as the embodiment of the unity of morality and law and revealed a complex intertwining and conflict of legal and moral concerns, actualized the idea of the non-ordination of morality and law, focused on the confrontation of morality and sociality, and put philosophers and lawyers before the need to rethink the fundamental concepts and foundations of philosophy of morality and law. The ethical view over the Trial in question is possible only as the view over its moral subject, that is, the one who is responsible for Auschwitz as the act he personally committed: for him, the central question is how not to commit radical evil, not to participate in it. The answer involves rethinking the idea of morality, contrasting it to sociality, including elimination of any legal meanings. Reference to the materials of the Eichmann Trial allows us to describe a number of points that require understanding: differences between Eichmann and witnesses lies in the moral coloration of the language, in their ability to fit in the logic of the trial, in their attitude to their own fault, in their understanding of the truth, in their attitude to the fact. Also, it lies in the possibility of legal and moral attitude to the radical evil that has distroyed law and morality as the foundations of its evaluation, judicial routinization of the evil and instrumentalization of morality that provided for passing a conviction, the difference in understanding the act in light of ethics and law, etc. A consistent ethical response relates to the assumption of an absolute prohibition of murder, which is not based on morality or law, but is the basis of it.
Keywords
ethics,
law,
philosophy,
history of law,
morality,
trial,
moral subject,
responsibility,
crime,
criminal
About the Author
O. P. Zubets
Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Zubets Olga Prokofevna, PhD in Philosphy, Senior Researcher.
109240, Russia, Moscow, ul. Goncharnaya, d. 12/1.
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Review
For citations:
Zubets O.P. The Eichmann trial: an ethical view. Actual Problems of Russian Law. 2019;(2):51-61. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.17803/1994-1471.2019.99.2.051-061
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