The noise, the drum, the poem, the song, the film, the word – these are the methods by which the World Tribunal on Iraq (WTI), held in Istanbul in June 2005, came to be and began investigating the truth. Indictments and testimony were presented, recalling and articulating crimes, lies and deceit. In its course, the tribunal uncovered imperial machinations where states of exception and permanent war become the norm; where collective punishment becomes the means of policing; and where mercenaries of torture and pain are invoked as 'extraordinary renditions'.
The WTI produced judgements aimed at addressing the gap created by the failure of international institutions to protect Iraq. The final session of the WTI collated this testimony and produced a verdict (drafted by a 'jury of conscience' whose spokesperson was Arundhati Roy) that can be read as a veritable manifesto for the new anti-war movement.
The tribunal process embodied a deeply symbolic recognition of the failures of international law in Iraq, a process that has largely interrupted the 'myth of law,' based on the values of the enlightenment.
The WTI was a retort to Empire's Law. If the tribunal is seen in terms of its potential for law-making and law-doing – its declaratory, deliberative authority derived almost exclusively from those millions who marched on the streets – then it can be seen to be enacting some of the still-unfinished business of decolonisation: dealing with the law itself, thinking the law anew (see book review, pp 102). In so doing, it represents a deep shift towards an idea of People's Law – an assertion of the right to judgement of ordinary people in the world. As academic Jayan Nayar argued persuasively at the WTI, by wresting the "capability of judgement, authorship, control and action" away from national and international authorities, we reinvent the very stuff of political practice. It is here that the WTI coincides with the many grassroots struggles and imaginations that animate resistance movements and 'rebellious consciousnesses' across the globe, including the Subcontinent.