The cries of illegality persist. The responses have rightly made the moral case for taking decisive action and pointed out that international law is a work in progress. But these are sweeping statements and generalizations. There is more to add on the specifics.

Those declaring illegality would at least have to accept the following: 1) Article 51 of the UN Charter leaves intact the right of self-defense under customary international law. Customary international law does not require a state to be a sitting duck: it recognizes anticipatory self-defense; 2) customary international law is not static, and nineteenth century conceptions of what an ‘imminent’ threat looked like are not fossilized; and 3) the principles of customary international law may be modified by changes introduced by........

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