For critics of the Iraq war, the legality of the conflict has always been at the heart of their opposition.
Among them are some of the families of soldiers killed in Iraq - those who believe troops should never have been sacrificed on the front line.
There were perhaps a million voices insisting the war was illegal in protest marches. The lawyers protested in different ways, but they were also allegedly ignored.
Many of the families of the British soldiers killed in Iraq have long believed they died fighting a war that was not legal.
For the family of Major Matthew Bacon it is a loss that should, and could, have been avoided.
“The fact that Mr Straw [former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw] ignored his own legal advisors says something about the man,” says Roger Bacon, father of Major Matthew Bacon. “Surely, because nobody wants to go to war if they can possibly avoid it and if you receive good legal advice that you should not go to war – that it is illegal to do so – then surely you take that advice.”
Anti-war protestors believe that today proves that they were right to say the war was wrong.
“Government ministers acted in the most the most improper way – in a way really put pressure on people who were supposed to give them advice in order to get the advice that they wanted to take to war,” says Lindsay German of the Stop the War Coalition. “I can’t think of a more serious charge.”
It is some vindication perhaps, not just for the voices of protest out on the street, but also in parliament for those MPs and ministers who resigned in opposition to the war.
Robin Cook was the most significant resignation. Cook’s then parliamentary aid then quit in protest over the war.
“I think it would have been almost impossible for Robbie not to be saying today ‘I told you so’,” stated Ken Purchase, former aid to Robin Cook. “If he’s able to look down or from beneath these proceedings, he must feel a certain satisfaction.”
It all adds to the pressure on former Prime Minister Tony Blair to explain why he took the country to - what lawyers were advising - was an illegal war.
3 News / ITV