Introductory Note

The Dutch Committee of Inquiry on the War in Iraq presented its report to Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende and provided copies to both houses of parliament on 12 January 2010. The Committee had been established by the Balkenende cabinet on 6 March 2009 to conduct an independent inquiry into the decision-making process leading to Dutch political (but not military) support of the war in Iraq, in general, and into aspects of international law, intelligence and information gathering as well as alleged Dutch military involvement in Iraq, in particular.[…]

In view of the wide interest in the subject matter, including considerable international interest on the findings of the Committee on the international law basis, the Board of Editors has decided to translate this international law chapter into English which is reproduced here in its entirety. References to other chapters of the report have been retained. The Board of Editors gratefully acknowledges the kind permission of the Committee of Inquiry and Boom publishers to publish this text.