The historical period of the Third Reich raises moral questions of international law scholarship in a far more drastic way than periods with more gradual and subtle degrees of right and wrong.

In various periods of history international lawyers may have faced the moral dilemma of whether they should justify the actions of a government or speak up in the name of law and justice and thus risk repression. More likely he is a rather complicated character at times ‘daring greatly’ at times ‘coming short again and again’. In turn the academic may well be anything but a hero. Suppressing an academic’s work and historical role may be achieved much more easily than physically killing him. Yet political reality is often far less dramatic but far more complicated than fiction. 1 These words encapsulate the dilemma one faces when analysing the history of political conflicts.

The phrase ‘history is written by those who have hanged heroes’ opens a largely fictional dramatization of the life of the 13th century Scottish warrior William Wallace.

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