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The privilege of opening the first trial in history for crimes against the peace of the world imposes a grave responsibility. The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating, that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored, because it cannot survive their being repeated. That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason.

— Robert H. Jackson

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More quotes by Robert H. Jackson

We can afford no liberties with liberty itself.

Procedural fairness, if not all that originally was meant by due process of law, is at least what it most uncompromisingly requires.

But when notice is a person's due, process which is a mere gesture is not 'due process.'

Not every defeat of authority is a gain for individual freedom, nor every judicial rescue of a convict a victory for liberty.

The Task of Maintaining Our Liberties: The Role of the Judiciary (1953)

A confession is wholly and incontestably voluntary only if a guilty person gives himself up to the law and becomes his own accuser.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Robert H. Jackson (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.