Why wasn’t the world court asked to rule on the legality of intervention in Iraq?
If the US led Coalition was to take a principled approach to determining whether this war was legal, an advisory opinion would have been requested from the ICJ on the legality of military action in Iraq. This could have been requested through an organ of the UN. The failure by the US to request that the matter be determined by the world court can be interpreted as an admission that international law does not authorise such military intervention. After America’s experience before the ICJ in the Nicaragua Case, it is most unlikely that the US would submit such a matter to the world court. Interestingly, neither the US nor Iraq are members of the ICJ. The Rule of Law and the Implications of Unilateralism The US and its Coalition cannot have it both ways: they either support the rule of law and expect states to act in accordance with international law, or they do not. If they do, they have a serious credibility problem. The US has failed to ensure that Israel complies with more than 60 Sec
