Syria: the next best thing
He’d lost the debate before he even opened his mouth. To summon back Britain’s MPs from the four corners of the earth during the summer recess needs an urgent case: …
international law
How to go to war with Syria
Parliament has been recalled tomorrow for a debate on the crisis in Syria. The use of poison gas in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta appears to have crossed a line, …
The death of Osama Bin Laden
Quakers are enjoined to see “that of God in everyone”, but it must be hard to see it in the person of Osama Bin Laden. A terrorist and a mass …
Too much information
One has to admire the elegance of Tony Blair’s argument in front of the Chilcot enquiry last Friday. He was recalled to the enquiry after his previous appearance a year …
Nick Clegg: a blunder, not a crime
It seems that Nick Clegg is still adapting to government. Describing the Iraq war as “illegal”, as he did in the House of Commons yesterday, may have made sense as …
When it comes to law, we are looking in the wrong place
Letter published in the Guardian, 28 January 2010 Jack Straw’s letter to the attorney general of 20 February 2003, published by the Chilcot inquiry, shows that, when it comes to …
When it comes to law, we are looking in the wrong place Read More »
Why does the government employ lawyers?
The Chilcot inquiry’s encounter with Jack Straw is turning up yet more gems. Jack Straw was foreign secretary at the time of the invasion of Iraq and the inquiry into …
The trial of Tzipi Livni
Let me say at the outset that there is no simple answer to this question. The development of the law in theory has outstripped the implementation of the law in …
International anarchy at sea
This blog has written before about the spate of piracy in the seas off the coast of Somalia. Ships are being taken hostage and ransomed back to their owners; the …
The law is an ass
Amid European rejoicing about the restoration of multilateralism to the White House in the recent American presidential election, an interesting corrective is published in the Wall Street Journal. Law professors …