1. Radhabinod Pal was an Indian jurist who was a member of the United Nations' International Law Commission from 1952 to 1966.
22 Facts About Radhabinod Pal
1. 2.
Radhabinod Pal was one of three Asian judges appointed to the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, the "Tokyo Trials" of Japanese war crimes committed during the Second World War.
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Radhabinod Pal was born in 1886 in the village of Salimpur, Kushtia, then part of undivided Nadia district in Bengal Presidency, British India into a Bengali Hindu Vaishnavite family.
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Radhabinod Pal took his BA Honors and MA in Mathematics from the Presidency College, Calcutta.
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Radhabinod Pal worked as a clerk at the Allahabad Accountant General Office before he took his BL degree in 1911.
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Radhabinod Pal later served as a lecturer in Mathematics at the Ananda Mohan College, Mymensingh.
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Alongside his teaching, Radhabinod Pal practiced law at the Mymensingh Bar.
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Radhabinod Pal then moved to Calcutta to build a legal career in the High Court.
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Radhabinod Pal studied mathematics and constitutional law at Presidency College, Calcutta, and the Law College of the University of Calcutta.
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Radhabinod Pal was a major contributor to the formulation of the Indian Income Tax Act of 1922.
11.
Radhabinod Pal worked as professor at the Law College of the University of Calcutta from 1923 till 1936.
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Radhabinod Pal became a judge of the Calcutta High Court in 1941 and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta in 1944.
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Radhabinod Pal was asked to represent British India as a member of the tribunal of judges officiating at the Tokyo Trials in 1946.
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In deliberations with judges from 10 other countries, Radhabinod Pal was highly critical of the prosecution's use of the legal concept of conspiracy in the context of pre-war decisions by Japanese officials.
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Hence Radhabinod Pal dissented from the tribunal's verdicts of guilt in the cases of defendants charged with Class A war crimes.
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Radhabinod Pal's reasoning influenced the judges representing the Netherlands and France, and all three of these judges issued dissenting opinions.
17.
Radhabinod Pal held the view that the legitimacy of the tribunal was suspect and questionable, because the spirit of retribution, and not impartial justice, was the underlying criterion for passing the judgment.
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Judge Radhabinod Pal never intended to offer a juridical argument on whether a sentence of not guilty would have been a correct one.
19.
In 1966, Radhabinod Pal visited Japan and said in a speech that he had admired Japan from an early age for being the only Asian nation that "stood up against the West".
20.
Radhabinod Pal is revered by Japanese nationalists and a monument dedicated to him stands on the grounds of the Yasukuni Shrine.
21.
Judge Radhabinod Pal's dissent is frequently mentioned by Indian diplomats and political leaders in the context of Indo-Japanese friendship and solidarity.
22.
The dissenting judgement of Judge Radhabinod Pal is well-known to the Japanese people and will always symbolise the affection and regard our people have for your country.