Part two: Khawar Qureshi QC reflects on the growth of public international law in the English courts
In the first part of this series I covered the “sanctions cases” where public international law (PIL) was engaged (see NLJ, 13 February 2009, p 223). In this part, the key cases during 2008 relating to Iraq/Afghanistan, and cases concerning civil sovereign immunity are considered.
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Gentle
In R (on the application of Gentle and another) v The Prime Minister and others [2008] UKHL 20 the House of Lords (constituted by nine law lords) was asked by the mothers of two soldiers who died in Iraq (in March 2003 and June 2004 respectively—the latter after the United Nations Security Council had passed a resolution providing legal cover for the coalition forces in Iraq), to determine whether ss 1 and 2 of the Human Rights Act 1998 read together with Art 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention) required the UK authorities to establish an independent public inquiry into circumstances
