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 |
 |  http://legal.lege.net/the-rule-of-law/
 |  Source:  http://the-rule-of-law.com/  24 Mar 2003
 |
 |
 |  Law Professors For the Rule of Law
 |  P. O. Box 19527
 |  Stanford, California 94309
 |  lawprofs@the-rule-of-law.com
 |
 |
 |  ". . . to save succeeding generations from the scourge of
 |  war, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights . . .
 |  in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large
 |  and small, and to establish conditions under which justice
 |  and respect for the obligations arising from international
 |  law can be maintained"  -- Preamble to the Charter of the
 |  United Nations
 |
 |
 |  Law Professors' Statement Challenging US War Plans [
 |  http://the-rule-of-law.com/IraqStatement or local copy
 |  further down ]
 |
 |  317 teachers of law from 87 law schools around the country
 |  have denounced the Bush administration's plans for war with
 |  Iraq, explaining that a US war against a country that has
 |  not attacked the United States would itself be an unlawful
 |  act, in defiance of America's treaty obligations, and in
 |  violation of US and international law. Read the full
 |  statement. [ http://the-rule-of-law.com/IraqStatement or
 |  local copy further down ]
 |
 |
 |  "The international rule of law is not a soft luxury to be
 |  discarded whenever leaders find it convenient or popular to
 |  resort to savage violence. The international rule of law is
 |  a bulwark against the horrors of warfare that we Americans
 |  have so recently felt first-hand."
 |
 |  "Lawless international violence only breeds more killing of
 |  innocent people. Massive civilian deaths can only spawn new
 |  generations of embittered peoples, new hate-filled leaders,
 |  new enraged individuals, determined to answer violence with
 |  violence. The American people are not made safer by the
 |  unilateral use of force, we are further endangered, for
 |  lawless violence generates recruits for terrorism."
 |
 |  A US War Against Iraq Will Violate US and International Law
 |  and Set a Dangerous Precedent For Violence That Will
 |  Endanger the American People
 |
 |
 |
 |  Local copy of the full statement:
 |
 |
 |  http://the-rule-of-law.com/IraqStatement/  12 Nov 2002
 |
 |
 |  Law Professors' Statement Challenging US War Plans
 |
 |
 |  A US War Against Iraq Will Violate US and International Law
 |  and Set a Dangerous Precedent For Violence That Will
 |  Endanger the American People
 |
 |
 |  President Bush maintains that Iraq's "decade of defiance" of
 |  United Nations resolutions justifies a war against Iraq. 
 |  But the President ignores the fact that a US war, unleashed
 |  without the approval of the UN Security Council, against a
 |  country that has not attacked the United States, would
 |  itself be an unlawful act, in defiance of America's treaty
 |  obligations, and a violation of US and international law.
 |
 |  Our Constitution provides that treaties signed by the
 |  President and ratified by the Senate are part of the
 |  "supreme Law of the Land." The United Nations Charter, which
 |  our nation wrote in large part, and signed and ratified as a
 |  treaty in 1945, provides that  --  except in response to an
 |  armed attack  --  nations may neither threaten nor engage in
 |  warfare without the authorization of the UN Security
 |  Council.  President Bush swore to uphold and defend the
 |  Constitution.  Yet he advocates a right to ignore our treaty
 |  obligations and to visit the scourge of war upon Iraq, with
 |  or without the approval of the United Nations.
 |
 |  The dangerous path America is treading will only lead to
 |  more suffering by Americans, as well as by others.  The
 |  international rule of law is not a soft luxury to be
 |  discarded whenever leaders find it convenient or popular to
 |  resort to savage violence.  The international rule of law is
 |  a bulwark against the horrors of warfare that we Americans
 |  have so recently felt first-hand.
 |
 |      *   Every nation that has ever committed aggression
 |  against another claimed to be "defending" itself. The United
 |  States helped establish the United Nations precisely in
 |  order to impose the rule of law on such claims, to make it
 |  unlawful for nations to strike against others unless they
 |  were themselves under armed attack.  The United States is
 |  not under armed attack by Iraq.
 |
 |      *   Lawless international violence only breeds more
 |  killing of innocent people. The massive civilian deaths, the
 |  scarred and maimed children, the ruined and starving
 |  peoples, whose suffering is inseparable from warfare, can
 |  only spawn new generations of embittered peoples, new
 |  hate-filled leaders, new enraged individuals, determined to
 |  answer violence with violence.
 |
 |      *   The American people are not made safer by the
 |  unilateral use of force, in violation of the "supreme Law of
 |  the Land" and the United Nations Charter.  We are further
 |  endangered. Lawless violence generates recruits for
 |  terrorism.
 |
 |
 |  We, teachers of law at American law schools, protest the
 |  Bush administration's illegal plan to conduct a war against
 |  Iraq. We call upon our government to step back from the
 |  brink of war and allow the United Nations to resolve the
 |  crisis peacefully, patiently, and lawfully.
 |
 |
 |
 |  If you teach law at an American law school and would like to
 |  be listed as a signer, please write to us at 
 |  lawprofs@the-rule-of-law.com .  Please include the full name
 |  of your university and/or law school.
 |
 |
 |
 |  (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this
 |  material is distributed without profit to those who have
 |  expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
 |  information for research and educational purposes.)
 |
 |
 |
 |  Additional reading:
 |
 |  Resources
 |  http://legal.lege.net/resources/
 |
 |______________________________________________________________