The trial began on 19 February 1942 before the Vichy regime's Supreme Court of Justice, which was empowered by a decree to ""judge whether the former ministers, or their immediate subordinates, had betrayed the duties of their offices by way of acts which contributed to the transition from a state of peace to a state of war before September 1939, and which after that date worsened the consequences of the situation thus created."" The crimes with which the defendants were charged were retrospectively created, i.e. at the time these acts were allegedly carried out, they had not been illegal. This was contrary to the principle of "nullum crimen, nulla poena sine praevia lege poenali" which forbids retroactive application of penal law.