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> Reply from Hugh: > The nearest anyone got to a successful action through the instituions of > international law was the case brought by Nicaragua to the International > Court of Justice during the US blockade of that country; Nicaragua > effectively won, but at that moment the Sandinista government fell and the > question became obsolete. Whoops, Hugh! The ICJ in Military and Paramilitary activities in Nicaragua (1986) only ruled unlawful the US military activities against Nicaragua, and its incitement to torture. In fact, it explicitly stated that the US was fully authorisd to refrain from all trade with Nicaragua - fully within its rights as a sovereign state. No use for us here, as far as sanctions go. By far the best place to look is the judgments of the ICJ in the Lockerbie and Bosnia/Hercegovina cases, where the ICJ effectively ruled that Security Council acts can be assessed for their compliance in law. Also see the Tadic appeals court judgment in the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, which concerned the review in law of a security council resolution. Of course, these do not deal with the legality of economic sanctions -- you'll have to draw on other material here. If I remember correctly, there was some legal condemnation from the UN Sub-Committee on the Protection of Minorities in August 1998 for the scope of economic sanctions on Iraq. Best wishes, Glen. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To be removed/added, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk, NOT the whole list. Archived at http://linux.clare.cam.ac.uk/~saw27/casi/discuss.html