[JURIST] In a letter Friday to The Guardian newspaper in the UK, 16 professors of international law from the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, London and Paris said there is "no basis in international law" for war against Iraq:

The UN charter outlaws the use of force with only two exceptions: individual or collective self-defence in response to an armed attack and action authorised by the security council as a collective response to a threat to the peace, breach of the peace or act of aggression. There are currently no grounds for a claim to use such force in self-defence. The doctrine of pre-emptive self-defence against an attack that might arise at some hypothetical future time has no basis in international law. Neither security council resolution 1441 nor any prior resolution authorises the proposed use of force in the present circumstances.