WAR ON IRAQ

Guardian: Was the Iraq war illegal?

In a landmark case, two peace activists who tried to stop B-52 bombers taking off will argue that the conflict breached international law

Was the war in Iraq legal or not? Lord Hutton won't tell us: that ultimate question does not come within the terms of his inquiry into the death of weapons expert David Kelly. The high court was asked to decide but demurred, declaring it had no jurisdiction to interpret UN resolution 1441, the basis on which Britain went to war.
But the question persists, becoming, if anything, more insistent as any sign of the weapons of mass destruction with which we were threatened continues to prove elusive four and a half months after the end of the war. We learned at the weekend that Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, had urged the prime minister in a private memo just four days before the hostilities broke out to keep Britain out of the conflict.

This week the question will take centre stage again in a court of law. On Friday, in the unlikely setting of Gloucester crown court, a hearing will take place in a criminal case that could mean that 12 ordinary citizens - an English jury - will get to decide whether or not the conflict was legal.