Michael Mansfield (Sleep easy war criminals, 8 October) was right to attack the weakening of the law on universal jurisdiction supported by this government and its predecessor. It was a change initiated at the behest of the Israeli government, and it has made Britain safer for those accused of war crimes whether, say, from Israel, Sri Lanka or Burma. In changing the law the government argued that, if private citizens could apply for arrest warrants, this might stop ministerial discussions with Israeli politicians. But such discussions could always have been protected, as they were this week when Ms Livni was declared to have "special mission" immunity. This shows the change of the law was unnecessary; it has only weakened Britain's ability to fulfil its obligations to ensure accountability for war crimes.
Dr Phyllis Starkey
Oxford
• There was seemingly no need for the government to change the law to protect Israelis from possible arrest and prosecution for war crimes. They only needed to grant them "special mission" status and thus immunity from prosecution, even for war crimes. Wouldn't that be a more transparent and honest approach to the "problems" arising from entertaining people who many in the UK regard as probably guilty of war crimes?
Ian Lowery
Watford, Hertfordshire
• Michael Mansfield's article is more a diatribe against Israel than a genuine legal analysis of the recent change in the law, which now prevents private applications for arrest warrants in suspected war crimes cases without the consent of the director of public prosecutions. This change is not as major as Mansfield claims. The attorney-general's consent has always been needed to prosecute these crimes (International Criminal Court Act 2001, section 53(3)), unlike for normal criminal offences. It was anomalous that his consent was not required for the arrest warrant to be issued in the first place. There is a difference between the state's obligation to prosecute international crimes and the power for private citizens to bring such prosecutions or apply for arrest warrants. England is one of the few jurisdictions where private criminal prosecutions are permitted. They are rare in continental Europe and the US – but nobody has then accused those states of failing in their duties to prosecute international crimes.
Alexander Halban
London
• Michael Mansfield regrets that Tzipi Livni escaped arrest in the UK as she was Israeli foreign minister at the time of the assault on Gaza. Why then does he not step back from his demonisation of Israel and seek the arrest of Tony Blair and Jack Straw who were responsible for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars with casualties more than 100 times that of Gaza?
Paul Miller
London
