Superior orders, also known as just following orders or the nuremberg defense, is a plea in a court of law that a person, whether civilian, military or police, should not be considered guilty of committing crimes ordered by a superior officer or official Learn how the nuremberg defendants' argued that german leaders were following orders when committing atrocities during the holocaust. [1][2] it is regarded as a complement to command responsibility.
Just following orders is a justification for morally questionable actions that a character may invoke when questioned about the rightness or necessity of such actions During the trials, the superior orders defense gained such significant notoriety that it started being used interchangeably with nuremberg defense and associated with the german phrase befehl ist befehl (an order is an order or only following orders). This justification holds that the (bulk of the) responsibility for such …