Iraq and the Use of Force: Do the Side-Effects Justify the Means?
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Robert Cryer
To say that the matter of the legality of the armed conflict against Iraq in 2003 was divisive is an understatement. The primary justification given by the UK government for the lawful nature of the Iraq war (2003) was an implied mandate from the Security Council. The implied mandate was said to be derived from a combination of Security Council Resolutions 678 and 1441. Many international lawyers remain unconvinced that such a mandate can be inferred from those resolutions. There is agreement among both supporters and opponents of the war in Iraq that Saddam Hussein’s regime had an appalling human rights record. This was known to the coalition governments; indeed, Tony Blair expressly made the "moral case" for war on the basis of Hussein’s human rights violations. The legal justifications offered for the conflict by the UK government, however, did not refer to humanitarian intervention. This paper investigates whether it is possible that, despite the fact that the justification was not raised by the UK, it can provide a defence to any claims that the UK acted unlawfully, or that individuals committed an international crime, by initiating the attack on Iraq.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- Power in War
- Iraq and the Use of Force: Do the Side-Effects Justify the Means?
- Ends, Means, Side-Effects, and Beyond: A Comment on the Justification of the Use of Force
- Off Limits? International Law and the Excessive Use of Force
- Excessive Force in War: A "Golden Rule" Test
- Is International Humanitarian Law Lapsing into Irrelevance in the War on International Terror?
- Use of Force in Protecting Property
- Excessive Use of Force as a Means of Social Exclusion: The Forced Eviction of Squatters in Israel
- The Use of Force Beyond the Liberal Imagination: Terror and Empire in Palestine, 1947
- Justification Between Positivism and Decision
- Divine Spirit and Physical Power: Rabbi Shlomo Goren and the Military Ethic of the Israel Defense Forces
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- Power in War
- Iraq and the Use of Force: Do the Side-Effects Justify the Means?
- Ends, Means, Side-Effects, and Beyond: A Comment on the Justification of the Use of Force
- Off Limits? International Law and the Excessive Use of Force
- Excessive Force in War: A "Golden Rule" Test
- Is International Humanitarian Law Lapsing into Irrelevance in the War on International Terror?
- Use of Force in Protecting Property
- Excessive Use of Force as a Means of Social Exclusion: The Forced Eviction of Squatters in Israel
- The Use of Force Beyond the Liberal Imagination: Terror and Empire in Palestine, 1947
- Justification Between Positivism and Decision
- Divine Spirit and Physical Power: Rabbi Shlomo Goren and the Military Ethic of the Israel Defense Forces
