International Law, International Lawyers: The Chilcot Report - Period 5

This course aims to do two things: first, to provide a close case analysis of the British government's decisionmaking in respect of participating in the war against Iraq in 2003; second, to use this case as a means to reflect on the interplay between law and politics, lawyers and politicians, and what that tells us about the law and the character of legal advise. At the heart of this course lies the 2016 Chilcot Report: specifically, its detailed inquiry into the legal advise issued by the government's own as well as independent legal advisers. In its fifth volume, the Report prominently details the change of heart of the UK's Attorney General (Lord Goldsmith), who first argued that the use of force against Iraq would be illegal, but later came to the "better view" that this was not the case. In order to be able to first understand 'what happens here', we resort to the legal framework: what is the law on the use of force, in general, and what was the legal debate about in this case specifically? Secondly, we do a close reading of the fifth volume of the Chilcot report, and ask two questions: how does the substance of the legal advise change, and who, in this part of the report, is talking to whom? This latter question serves as the entry point to not just talk about legal rules: the presumption of the course is that the law is used by those working with it, and that if we want to understand how the law works in practice, we'll have to take a closer look at its users. The Chilcot report reveals a number of fascinating exchanges between the most important players, who do not just discuss the law, but the nature of legal advise; the role of legal advisers and the responsibility of both politicians and lawyers. This, then, constitutes the third part of the course: a discussion of and reflection on the interaction between law and politics and those engaged in this field, and what all of this tells us about how the law operates in practice.

Contact hours listed under a course description may vary due to the combination of lecture-based and independent work required for each course therefore, CEA's recommended credits are based on the ECTS credits assigned by VU Amsterdam. 1 ECTS equals 28 contact hours assigned by VU Amsterdam.