The seven-year inquiry into the UK’s decision to join the Iraq War – the results of which were released yesterday – stopped short of making a judgement on the legality of Britain’s involvement in the conflict. However, former attorney general Lord Peter Goldsmith has come under fire in Sir Chilcot’s report for the role he played in advising the Blair administration on the legal argument behind the invasion of Iraq. ‘We [have concluded] that the circumstances in which it was decided that there was a legal basis for military action were far from satisfactory,’ said Sir Chilcot yesterday.
Changing advice
The report notes that Lord Goldsmith changed his advice as to whether the UK would need the backing of the United Nations Security Council in order to proceed with the invasion between January and March 2003, eventually advising then prime minister Tony Blair that there was a ‘reasonable case’ for proceeding without such endorsement. Lord Goldsmith, who originally argued that there was no legal basis for the invasion of Iraq, has previously come under fire for changing his stance on the legality of the conflict after meeting with US lawyers. However, during the 2010 Iraq inquiry, he dismissed the notion that political pressure had swayed his advice as ‘complete nonsense’. Section 5 of the Chilcot report, which mentions Lord Goldsmith some 600 times, concludes that the former attorney general should have written a full decision outlining the legal reasoning behind his change in stance on the invasion as well as the potential legal challenges involved. Lord Goldsmith commented yesterday: 'In purely technical terms, legal opinions can differ. I provided my advice to the best of my abilities and aware of the seriousness of any decision to go to war. In my opinion, that decision was in accordance with international law and it was permissible for those with the responsibility for taking the decision to proceed. So, I believed then - and I still believe - that military action was lawful.’
Sources: Financial Times; The Guardian; Legal Business; Legal Week
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