Law, War and Letter Writing

When (some) international crises arise, it has become common for lawyers to respond by penning open letters that call out violations of international law and call on governments, international organizations or civil society to take a suite of actions. In this article, we argue that the prevalence of international law open letter writing means that open letters can now be viewed as a genre of international legal practice. Consequently, there is a need for international lawyers to attend more closely to the purposes, conventions and consequences of the practice. Drawing on open letters that were written in the first three months of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022 and the first three months of the Israel-Gaza conflict in 2023, we argue that there are three main purposes embedded in these letters: advocacy, solidarity and public education. Throughout this article, we explore these purposes, consider their limits and possibilities and analyse how the letter writers seek to achieve them. We contend that, at present, international law open letters pursue advocacy, solidarity and public education in ways that are often narrow and with possible unintended consequences. We suggest that these limitations could be addressed through employing a broader array of open letter-writing modalities.