In the world of realpolitik, a statement from a group of lawyers - no matter how eminent - expressing outrage at the US's handling of detainees in Guantanamo Bay will probably not cause President George Bush and defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld to lose much sleep.

But that should not diminish the importance of the Law Society-instigated joint statement by a group of foreign bar leaders at the American Bar Association's annual conference this week.

What the US administration is proposing to do - and will in all likelihood go ahead with - in relation to military tribunals quite simply flies in the face of natural justice.

Of course, the US suffered terribly at the hands of terrorists.

But if terrorists flout democracy by attempting to force their will through suicide bombings, it surely does the major democracies no good to jettison democracy and the rule of law as a response.

The UK government has tiptoed around the issue.

The Attorney-General played the special relationship card and apparently won some concessions for the handling of British detainees.

But those concessions in themselves are a slap to natural justice, as the international bar leaders pointed out in San Francisco.

George Bush might not end up doing the right thing, but the lawyers putting their names to the statement have.