This is the first volume of a new 5-volume reference work which rectifies a lamentable gap in access to rich war crimes trial jurisprudence from the post-World War II era. The 5 volumes will compile a comprehensive and systematic collection of Law Reports of the 300 trials by Australian Military Courts held between 1945 and 1951. Those trials were held in eight locations and reports of the trials are grouped according to location. To introduce each trial location, a contextual essay provides background analysis explaining why the particular trials were conducted in that location.

This first volume includes reports for each of the 46 trials conducted in Morotai, Wewak, Labuan and Darwin in 1945-46. Given the lack of written reasons for judgment, these law reports draw extensively on the trial transcripts, including a description of prosecution and defence arguments, relevant legal issues, judgments and sentences. Launched at a propitious time in which Australia is engaged in a significant criminal investigation of alleged war crimes in Afghanistan, the reference work provides a rich and unrivalled resource and will be of lasting value both within Australia and outside it amongst scholars of the history of World War II and the development of international criminal law as well as to practitioners involved in contemporary war crimes trials. Many other Allied nations conducted their own military trials in both the European and Pacific theatres post-WWII, and the Australian experience, documented in these unique volumes, offers an important template for other national initiatives of this kind.