Resumen de Reading Between the Lines: The Iraq Inquiry, Doctrinal Debates, and the Legality of Military Action against Iraq in 2003

Christian Henderson

• The military action against Iraq in 2003 gave rise to a vast array of doctrinal academic literature that engaged with—and hotly debated—the legality of the invasion.1 The debate focused primarily on the so-called ‘revival’ argument, but also to a lesser extent on the issue of the permissibility of the right of pre-emptive self-defence. The Iraq Inquiry was not established to address and cast judgment upon the legality of the military action or to resolve the doctrinal debates that continue to rumble in connection with it. Indeed, when former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced the establishment of the Inquiry in Parliament on 15 June 2009, he noted that it was given the mandate of enabling...