For once, there's no legal controversy about American and potential British military action in Iraq. I don't think anyone's claiming it'd be unlawful for the RAF to carry out air strikes on "Islamic State" targets in Nineveh province, or near [...]
Last night Charon QC interviewed me about Iraq, international law and Lord Goldsmith's evidence to the Iraq inquiry. We discussed Lord Goldsmith's "revival" theory and the meaning of resolution 1441, plus the relevance of negotiators' views and propriety of Jack [...]
This blog didn't exist when US and British forces, with others, invaded Iraq in 2003. I've never written directly about the legality of the war. But with Sir Michael Wood and Elizabeth Wilmshurst having given evidence to the Iraq inquiry [...]
In the end, then, the minutes of Cabinet meetings at which the decision to invade Iraq was taken will not be released; Jack Straw has invoked section 53 of the Freedom of Information Act, thus vetoing disclosure in spite of [...]
So, Lord Bingham has given his legal view of the Iraq war: that the invasion was a serious breach of international law.Is there anyone who hasn't made up their mind about this already? I doubt it. Of course, Lord Bingham [...]
I've not seen a lot of coverage of this, but the FCO has lost in its attempt to withhold disclosure of a draft of the "dodgy dossier" published before the invasion of Iraq. There'll be a few glum faces in [...]
The legality or otherwise of the invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003 has been the biggest international legal issue of our time - and it continues to cause division and disagreement not only in the Dog and Duck but [...]
Lords Pannick and Lester have form for writing together on human rights, and today Pannick writes on the subject in the Times, while Lester comments in The Brief. Pannick makes fun of the long delay in producing its "Bill of Rights": [...]
How many articles and blogposts have referred to Orwell's classic essay Politics and the English Language? Well, here's another. I'm put in mind of it by recent use of the sinister phrase "extrajudicial killing" to describe the lethal RAF strike [...]
A row has broken out since the publication of the letter from the UK to the UN, in which the British permanent representative reports the drone strike that killed Reyaad Khan to the UN Security Council as required by article [...]