Summary Judgment - Gentle & Clarke -v- Prime Minister, Secretary of State for Defence & Attorney General

The Court of Appeal has handed down its judgment in this case today. The Court refused applications, on behalf of the relatives of two servicemen who lost their lives in Iraq, for judicial review of the refusal by the government to order an inquiry into whether the government took reasonable steps to be satisfied that the invasion of Iraq was lawful under the principles of public international law. The court’s reasons are summarised in the last paragraph of the judgment, which reads:

"84. We have every sympathy for the applicants. The deaths of their sons must be unbearable. However, the deaths will be investigated in detail. The only question which will not be investigated is the invasion question, namely whether the government took reasonable steps to be satisfied that the invasion of Iraq was lawful under the principles of public international law. We have reached the conclusion that the United Kingdom is not obliged to set up an independent inquiry into that question under article 2 of the Convention. Such an inquiry would inevitably involve, not only questions of international law, but also questions of policy, which are essentially matters for the executive and not the courts. The Convention does not contemplate that an inquiry set up pursuant to article 2 will consider either questions of international law or questions of policy. In all these circumstances we must dismiss the applications."

Ends