An offer to appear for the defence raises the problem of prosecuting German submariners for practices also used by the Allies. The argument is that charges would have exposed comparable Allied conduct and made prosecutions embarrassing. It questions whether prosecution could prevent every brutal feature of warfare while acknowledging that some actions were wrong. Lawfare is treated as the use of law to wage conflict, accompanied by scepticism that warfare can be turned into a courtroom dispute. This is an interpretation of the limits of prosecution, rather than a claim that all submarine warfare was legally permissible.
Notable Point · 2:09:33-2:11:39
Reciprocity and postwar submarine-warfare prosecutions
Comparable Allied conduct is offered as a reason for limits on submarine-warfare prosecutions, followed by scepticism about the reach of lawfare.