It has long been generally admitted that coastal States enjoy sovereignty over their internal waters to the same extent as over their land territory. The implication of this has been understood to be that the rules of general international law, concerning the legal order of the seas, do not affect the internal waters of coastal States. For this reason these waters alone have not been the subject of the codification of the law of the sea by general conventions.

A scholar studying international law, as it is presented in the texts of international treaties and restatements of customary norms, could describe an ideal world. The United Nations Charter and other international instruments suggest a harmonious existence in which there is no use or threat of the use of force between States, where disarmament is complete, where international aid to developing countries enables them to satisfy the basic needs of their inhabitants, where international co-operation leads to social and cultural progress and where human rights are respected. Disputes over the application of rules of international law are settled by international tribunals or other peaceful means, and violations of law are sanctioned by the implementation of rules of State responsibility.

Iraq and Iran would certainly not come at the top of everyone's list of States which are particularly concerned with the implementation of international law. However, as is the case in virtually all international conflicts, to justify their actions in the Gulf War, these States have also adopted positions based on arguments of international law. In a complicated conflict such as this, it is by no means easy to assess the validity of such justifications, as this contribution attempts to do, if only because the facts are extremely difficult to determine objectively. For purposes of international law, this problem regarding the facts can be partially avoided by analysing the conflict mainly on the basis of the viewpoints raised during the discussions of the conflict in the Security Council and the General Assembly of the United Nations. Moreover, only the first stage of the conflict up to 1980 is examined here.