Is the US Declaration of Independence illegal?

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• I think the British Lawyers need to look at the Magna Carta. Seems like same stuff different time period.

• Its just a debate, for kicks, meaning to say little more than masturbatory exercise of the grey muck

• "It was also totally illegitimate and illegal.

  At least, that was what lawyers from the UK argued ..."

  That argument was already made, at the time, by the British army. This is not news. That argument was also settled shortly thereafter.

  "Lincoln made the case against secession and he was right," they argue in their brief."

  Technically true. But "rightness" was proven by virtue of Lincoln winning the war that followed. Had the British won the war, then they would have been right, just as the Confederacy would have been right if they won the war, and the native Americans would have been right if they successfully repelled the Europeans.

  It's a funny thing, this "being right" business.

  Another way to look at it: this argument is now being made from a country where, if a little old lady raises her bumbershoot at an armed mugger, SHE is arrested and charged with "making threatening gestures". In view of that, maybe British legal arguments should be considered as credible as Iran telling us how to be peaceful.

  • Neither the Texas Constitution, nor the Constitution of the united States, explicitly or implicitly disallows the secession of Texas (or any other "free and independent State") from the United States. Joining the "Union" was ever and always voluntary, rendering voluntary withdrawal an equally lawful and viable option (regardless of what any self-appointed academic, media, or government "experts"—including Abraham Lincoln himself—may have ever said).

    Both the original (1836) and the current (1876) Texas Constitutions also state that "All political power is inherent in the people ... they have at all times the inalienable right to alter their government in such manner as they might think proper."

• Yeah, this is just more silliness that is a lead-up to more US-hating -- you know -- "since we declared our independence _illegally_, we have no right to exist" or some such rot.

  I've heard about enough of that kind of crap from the left. My answer to their *shocking* charge that the Declaration was illegal from the British POV is "So f*cking what. Wand some cheese to go with that whine?"

• I think this is something they do on a semi-regular basis just for the fun of it; pretty sure I've heard about this before.

  Unlax, boys.

• Was the Norman Conquest legal?

  • LOL, I wanted to put something in there about the Conqueror but could not figure how to do it. Well played sir!

    • Thank you.

• Who are the Brits making this claim? Or is it one of our own? Doesn't really matter. This is a ridiculous discussion leading nowhere.

• "Treason doth never prosper, and here's the reason: an it prosper, none dare call it treason."

  The Brits were busy fighting with France (yet again), and weren't really paying all that much attention. Plus, India was in the conquest stage. More distraction.

  It was legal by the only international standard that matters- raw power.

  We won, Brits. Get over it.

• Try and come and get it, again.

• Two hundred and thirtyfive years after the fact, debating the "legality" of the Declaration of Indepcence is an academic exercise. Something for lawyers to debate over a few martinis.

  Hmmm...I wonder if our graduate of Harvard Law President has an opinion
  on this subject, he seems eager to give away America's political and economic independence.