Abstract
This essay is builded upon Roberto Scevola's recent reflections on the Nuremberg trials, in order to analyze any of the juridical and philosophical issue raised by them.
Our purpose is twofold: on the one hand, we aim to highlight that the Nuremberg Trials represent a real watershed in the history of modern law, greatly contributing to the drafting of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights; on the other hand, we intend to clarify how the key aspect of this rift can be identified in a renewed attention to the relationship between positive law and etichal questions. Paradigmatic of this renewed attention is the so-called Radbruch's formula, which aroused a vast theoretical and legal debate and achieved a great success in German as well as in the rulings of European Court of Human Rights.