UK arms sales to Israel breach international law: former Supreme Court judges

Over 600 prominent lawyers, academics and former judges, including former Supreme Court president Lady Hale and two other former justices in the court, signed a letter warning the UK government that it is breaching international law by continuing to arm Israel.

The open letter, published on Wednesday, criticises the UK government for “falling significantly short” of its obligations under international law regarding arms sales to Israel.

It goes on to warn of the UK’s liability for “failure to comply with its own obligations under the Genocide Convention,” potentially incurring “UK state responsibility for the commission of an international wrong.”

The signatories reference the International Court of Justice’s identification of a “plausible risk of genocide” and demand the UK to “suspend the provision of weapons and weapons systems to the Government of Israel” and “work actively and effectively to secure a permanent ceasefire in Gaza”.

Prominent signatories include the former Supreme Court justices Lord Sumption and Lord Wilson, the former Lord Justices of Appeal Sir Richard Aikens, Sir Anthony Hooper, Sir Alan Moses and Sir Stephen Sedley.

Founders and partners of top law firms in the UK as well as professors from the University of Oxford, London School of Economics and Kings College are included.