Professor Christopher Greenwood And The International Court Of Justice

EDM number 2394 in 2007-08, proposed by Mark Durkan on 30/10/2008.
Categorised under the topics of Courts, International law, Legal profession and International organisations.

That this House regrets that the Government is promoting Professor Christopher Greenwood CMG QC to be elected as Judge of the International Court of Justice by the UN General Assembly and the Security Council on 5th November 2008; recalls his contribution to the Government's false assertion that military attack on Iraq in 2003 would be legal; notes that he provided the Government and Parliament with the flawed and untenable argument that war with Iraq was justified on the grounds that the UN Security Council had authorised the use of force when, in fact, the Security Council rejected the `second resolution' proposed by the US and UK; further notes that he is widely identified with both the questionable doctrine of `pre-emptive self-defence' and with the contrivance of `continuing authority' relying on previous UN resolutions which did not authorise use of force; believes that it would be particularly inappropriate for the UN General Assembly and Security Council to elect to the International Court of Justice a candidate with such a questionable record on fundamentals of international law and the responsibilities and reputation of the United Nations; and calls on the Government to cease its diplomatic and other efforts in support of Professor Greenwood's nomination.

This motion has been signed by a total of 17 MPs.