At the end there is no real difference between moral and law. Laws are just something people have decided to judge each other by. Laws and jurisdiction are just the implementation, which might change, the specs seem well defined (when it comes to war crimes).
The US had the power to establish before committing war crimes, that it does not want to be investigated (acting lawfully but immorally), while any other criminal would not have the power to plan ahead and could only try to escape justice after having committed a crime (acting immorally and unlawfully).
So what I am saying is: Nobody cares about acting lawfully when it comes to war crimes. Especially not, when you base your dominance on your fantasy of a moral high ground.