16 INTERNATIONAL LAW AUTHORITIES SAY WAR WOULD BE ILLEGAL

national | miscellaneous | news report

Saturday March 08, 2003 19:56

by Anthony Coughlan

jcoughln at tcd dot ie

Trinity College, Dublin

16 INTERNATIONAL LAW AUTHORITIES SAY WAR WOULD BE ILLEGAL

Letter in today's "Guardian" newspaper, London, Friday 7 March, sent to you for your information by Anthony Coughlan, Trinity College, Dublin

16 ACADEMIC INTERNATIONAL LAW AUTHORITIES SAY WAR WOULD BE ILLEGAL

We are teachers of international law. On the basis of the information
publicly available, there is no justification under international law
for
the use of military force against Iraq.

The UN Charter outlaws the use of force with only two
exceptions:individual
or collective self-defence in response to an armed atttack,and action
authorised by the Security Council as a collective response to a threat
to
the peace, breach of the peace or act of aggression.

There are currently no grounds for a claim to use such force in
self-defence. The doctrine of pre-emptive self-defence against an
attack
that might arise at some hypothetical future time has no basis in
international law. Neither Security Council resolution 1441 nor any
prior
resolution authorises the proposed use of force in the present
circumstances.

Before military action can lawfully be undertaken against Iraq, the
Security Council must have indicated its clearly expressed assent. It
has
not yet done so. A vetoed resolution could provide no such assent. The
Prime Minister's assertion that in certain circumstances a veto becomes
"unreasonable" and may be disregarded has no basis in international
law.

The UK has used its Security Council veto on 32 occasions since 1945.
Any
attempt to disregard these votes on the grounds that they were
"unreasonable" would have been deplored as an unacceptable infringement
of
the UK's right to exercise a veto under UN Charter Article 27.

A decision to undertake military action in Iraq without proper Security
Council authorisation will seriusly undermine the international rule of
law. Of course, even with that authorisation serious questions would
remain. A lawful war is not necessarily a just, prudent or humanitarian
war.

UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD: Prof Ulf Bernitz, Dr Nicolas Espejo-Yaksic,Agnes
Hurwitz, Prof.Vaughan Lowe, Dr Ben Saulk, Dr Katja Ziegler;

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE: Prof.James Crawford, Dr Susan Marks, Dr Roger
O'Keefe;

LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS: Prof.Christine Chinkin, Dr Gerry Simpson,
Deborah Cass;

SCHOOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES: Dr Matthew Craven;

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON: Prof.Phillippe Sands, Ralph Wilde;

UNIVERSITY OF PARIS: Prof.Pierre-Marie Dupuy