APPENDIX 31
Letter to the Rt Hon The Lord Williams
of Mostyn QC from the Chairman of the Committee
The Foreign Affairs Committee has been conducting
an inquiry into Kosovo, with the following terms of reference:
"To inquire into the foreign policy lessons
of the Kosovo crisis and how the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
might best promote peace and stability in the region".
As you will know, an important question is whether
the NATO military air campaign was lawful, in terms of compliance
with the UN Charter, customary international law and the Geneva
Conventions. Today the Committee took evidence on these issues
from Professor Christopher Greenwood, Mr Mark Littman and Mr Professor
Vaughan Lowe.
The Committee has asked that I should seek from
you access (on a classified basis) to the advice which your predecessor
gave to FCO Ministers on the legality of the military campaign,
together with any additional advice which you might wish to give
to the Committee.
I am sure that you will realise how important
it will be for our inquiry to have the authoritative view of the
Law Officers on these important legal questions.
8 February 2000
| 
