Nuremberg defense

The Nuremberg Defense refers to a legal strategy employed by many of the defendants at the Nuremberg war crimes trials seeking to convict Nazi perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Second World War. Many of those defendants claimed that they were not guilty of the charges against them as they were "only following orders."

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Nuremberg_defense

The Nuremberg Defense has since become a political and psychological meme. The term is now essentially synonymous with the phrase "I was only following orders", a phrase that has been used in defending accused war criminals for centuries. The phrase can refer to any attempt to deflect personal responsibility for a crime onto institutions like an army or the state. Occasionally, the Nuremberg Defense is referred to as the Eichmann defense.

Article 33 of the Rome Statute,[2] which established the International Criminal Court, allows the Nuremberg defense to relieve an individual of criminal responsibility provided:

Nuremberg Principle IV was disputed in Canada when Jeremy HinzmanWikipedia's W.svg attempted to claim refugeee status there after deserting the US army. Hinzman and his supporters argued that because the war in Iraq may be in breach of international law, it could possibly end with him and other troops being tried for war crimes. Although he was denied refugee status, one Justice presiding over the case stated, in reference to personal responsibility during wartime:

"An individual must be involved at the policy-making level to be culpable for a crime against peace ... the ordinary foot soldier is not expected to make his or her own personal assessment as to the legality of a conflict. Similarly, such an individual cannot be held criminally responsible for fighting in support of an illegal war, assuming that his or her personal war-time conduct is otherwise proper."