1 March 2005

Peter Hennessy, professor of contemporary history at Queen Mary College, London, described the way ministers behaved in the days leading up to the war as “truly breathtaking”. It casts a shadow over “the entire system of government,” he said. – The Guardian, February 24, 2005

Many on the ‘left’ may dismiss the arguments surrounding the ‘legal’ basis that underpins the obviously (to me and most of the planet) illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq as no more than a lot of hot air and obfuscation, preferring to take the ‘political’ road to judgement. But it is the ability of the state to create the fiction of its legitimacy to rule that in the final resort, is all that it has. Take away that legitimacy and ‘all that’s solid melts into air’. So what, exactly, is the legitimacy based upon? Largely, it’s the rule of law, especially when it comes to invading a sovereign state. But just what is the ‘rule’ of law?

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