A statement signed by 100 legal scholars and experts from leading law schools at Stanford, Yale, American University, and Rutgers, criticizing the U.S.-Israeli aggression against Iran, has been released . The introduction by the authors, who are connected to the U.S., says: “The letter is signed by international law experts across the United States, including senior professors; leaders of prominent international law associations, non-governmental organizations, and legal clinics; former government legal advisors; and military law experts and former Judge Advocates General (JAGs).”
Although they focus on “the conduct of the U.S. government,” they nonetheless add that they are also “concerned” about crimes by Iran.
The letter reads: “We, the undersigned U.S.-based international law experts, professors, and practitioners write to express profound concern about serious violations of international law and alarming rhetoric by the United States, Israel, and Iran in the present armed conflict in the Middle East.”
They write that: “The initiation of the campaign was a clear violation of the United Nations Charter, and the conduct of United States forces since, as well as statements made by senior government officials, raise serious concerns about violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, including potential war crimes…. Recent statements from senior U.S. government officials describing the rules governing military engagement as ‘stupid’ and prioritizing ‘lethality’ over ‘legality’ are profoundly alarming and dangerously short-sighted. These claims, particularly in combination with the observable conduct of U.S. forces, are harming the international legal order and the system of international law that we have devoted our lives to promoting.”
They specifically denounce “rhetoric and threats from senior U.S. officials and their allies, which portend further abuses, and the decimation of civilian harm mitigation structures within the U.S. government as a part of U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s ‘gloves off’ approach to warfare.” They quote the International Red Cresent statistics on vast death and destruction in Iran, and the Minab slaughter as “particularly concerning.”
They specifically name Pete Hegseth’s and Donald Trump’s statements for “no quarter” and the dismissal of international law, and Trump’s and Ambassador Walz’s open defense of the destruction of energy and water capacity, as well as nuclear power facilities, as overt and intentional crimes. They add a specific denunciation of Trump and Hegseth’s firing of lawyers, JAGs, and others whose job was to protect the law. They conclude: “We are gravely concerned that the conduct and threats outlined here are causing serious harm to civilians in the Middle East, and that they also contribute to escalating the conflict, damaging the environment and the global economy, and that they risk degrading the rule of law and fundamental norms that protect every nation’s civilians.”
Their also write to “remind all states of their legal obligations not to aid or assist the United States, Israel, or Iran in the commission of internationally wrongful acts, as well as to cooperate to bring to an end through lawful means serious breaches of peremptory norms of general international law (jus cogens) including the prohibition of aggression and the basic rules of international humanitarian law. We also urge the U.S. governments’ allies and cooperating partners to take steps to respect and ensure respect for international humanitarian law.”
