Ten years ago I was one of a small number of UK lawyers who opposed the invasion of Iraq on the grounds that it was illegal and unauthorised by the United Nations. We were all strong advocates of the notion that the rule of law was the bedrock of any civilised and democratic society. Without it our lives would be subject to a free for all in which might becomes right. The embodiment of the rule of law internationally has been the U.N. Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- direct results of the devastation inflicted by the Nazi regime in Germany during the Second World War. No one wanted a repeat of such flagrant aggression, so the Charter was drawn up to replace gunboat diplomacy with peaceful measures overseen by the U.N. Security Council.
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Mansfield: Bush, Blair should be tried for war crimes over invasion of Iraq
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Mansfied: Regime change is not permitted by the U.N. Charter
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Mansfield: Charter does not authorize preemptive action based on perceived threat
@placeholder insisted to the British public that he would only support a war if a second Security Council resolution authorising the action was passed, but the resolution never came.