The following is an archived copy of a message sent to a Discussion List run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
Views expressed in this archived message are those of the author, not of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
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I am not an expert, but I believe that individual soldiers are not guilty of a war crime by going to war in the knowledge that the overall justification for the war is questionable. In that situation, obeying orders is a valid defence. However, 'obeying orders' is not a defence against them directly committing a war crime, i.e. they would be guilty of a war crime if they shot a prisoner of war, even if they were ordered to. There's some quite interesting information about this at http://website.lineone.net/~ccadd/dec_2000_mgt.htm which is the report of a talk given by a Sir Hugh Beach to the Council on Christian Approaches to Defence & Disarmament in 2000. seb On Wed, 19 Mar 2003 jem23@cam.ac.uk wrote: > On the subject of soldiers and the law, if this war is illegal under > international law, does that then make any British soldier who goes guilty > of a war crime? Does obeying orders count as a defence, and conversely, do > soldiers have the right under military law to disobey orders that might, > say, involve them attacking civilians? If the answer to both is no, then > soldiers would seem to be in a Catch-22 situation. > > Julie > > --On Wednesday, March 19, 2003 10:28 AM +0000 "Chris.Williams" > <Chris.Williams@open.ac.uk> wrote: > > > And, as ever, the moment I'd sent this off, I finally dug out the answer. > > It's two years if convicted in Crown Court, three months if in a > > magistrates' court. I love human rights, me. > > > > Chris > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Chris.Williams > > To: 'casi-discuss ' > > Sent: 19/03/2003 10:07 > > Subject: [casi] Query on incitement to mutiny > > > > I'm not a lawyer, but for some reason or other I need to know how UK > > law > > currently stands on the issue of calling upon members of the armed > > forces to > > desert or mutiny. Can anyone on the list tell me, or point me in the > > right > > direction? > > > > Chris > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. > > To unsubscribe, visit > > http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss > > To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk > > All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. > > To unsubscribe, visit > > http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the > > list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are > > archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. > To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss > To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk > All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk > _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk