The author first reviews the Nuremberg principles: the Agreement for the Prosecution and Punishment of Major War Criminals of the European Axis, the indictment of the major war criminals, and the judgments rendered by the Nuremberg Tribunal. Both international and United States actions that have recognized these principles are described. A history of efforts to draft an international criminal code to administered through an international court focuses on the International Law Commission's 1954 Draft Code of Offences Against the Peace and Security of Mankind and work undertaken since 1978 by committees and the United Nations to refine the Draft Code. An analysis of obstacles to U.S. ratification of the Code addresses the emotional objection rooted in the American belief in the superiority of the due process system of criminal justice and juridical arguments centered on issues of substantive criminal law as ex post facto or the congressional prerogative to enact penal laws at the Federal level. Also examined are practical concerns and jurisprudential objections regarding penal aims and legal procedures. 29 footnotes.