After reading the recent report from John O'Sullivan
UN Climate Scientists Plead for Immunity from Criminal Prosecution I could not help think of something similar from the past...
Several of those accused at the Nuremberg trials offered the defense that they were merely carrying out the orders of their superiors. This defense was not accepted
In the Nuremberg trials (1945-1946), an International Military Tribunal tried high Nazi officials for actions committed during World War II that contravened the accepted laws of war.
Among the practices condemned were plotting and waging aggressive war, using slave labor, looting occupied countries, and abusing and murdering civilians (especially the Jews) and prisoners of war. The Allies' decision to try major Axis officials for war crimes had been announced in October 1943, when the American, British, and Russian foreign ministers met in Moscow.