For the first time in history, the Nuremberg Trials declared aggressive war the gravest criminal offense, as a result of which politicians and leading military officials found guilty were brought to justice. The process covered all possible spheres of society, revealed a complex mechanism for the administration of justice and the search for justice. At the same time, the authors of many publications about the Nuremberg Trial analyze only its accusatory part, mainly focusing on the political and legal significance of the Tribunal for the world community, the activities of the bodies for the prosecution of Nazi criminals, their atrocities, the subtleties of proving what they have done, bypassing the human rights component.

The purpose of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the Institute of Advocacy and to show the problematic aspects of the participation of defenders in the Nuremberg Trial. The topic of the study is due to the following: firstly, to show that the work of defenders in the Nuremberg Trial is a titanic work performed in the best traditions of the bar. Conducting a deliberately lost case of a client who, long before the start of the trial, was condemned by the “conscience of humanity”, required at least courage from the lawyer. The speeches of many defenders in the process are not only a subject for scientific analysis and discussion, but also an example of highly intellectual scrupulous work; secondly, the relevance of the recent trend of distortion of important historical events directly related to the Nuremberg Trials.

Objectives of the study: to consider the features of the involvement and participation of defenders in the process; to study defensive speeches and highlight interesting arguments in them; to highlight the problems that lawyers faced during the proceedings.

Research methodology: principles of the dialectical method of cognition (objectivity and comprehensiveness of the consideration of the object, historicism, universal connection of phenomena), as well as general scientific (analysis, synthesis) and private scientific (historical-legal and formallogical) methods.

The conclusion is formulated about how effective the lawyers in Nuremberg showed themselves in general and how fully the principle of competition was implemented from the point of view of human rights defenders, taking into account the difficulties faced by defenders in carrying out their task.