Occupation Law: (Mis)Use and Consequences in Iraq

It is a delicate and pretentious endeavour to examine Iraq in current times. It is delicate in the sense that new facts and consequences of the Coalition’s presence in Iraq are broadcast on a daily basis and discussed worldwide. Yet it is also pretentious because of the impressive volume of academic work about Iraq that has appeared during the last four years. There is now a solid body of scholarship on issues such as the Coalition’s interpretation and misuse of occupation law, the legality of the use of force, Western imperialistic aspirations over Iraq, and successes and failures of the Coalition Provisional Authority’s administration of Iraq in 2003 and 2004. Keeping those concerns in mind, this paper establishes a discursive trajectory across all these topics. I will argue that the modern evolution of occupation law is intertwined with the Coalition’s misinterpretation and misuse of their obligations under international law, and examine how a radical interpretation of occupation law has affected the prospects of democracy and stability in Iraq.