A panel discussion on recent international incidents, such as the recent Syrian Sarin gas attacks, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and others, where rival claims as to the truth concerning circumstances deflect attention from the tragedy experienced by civilians. The discussion will cover political and legal consequences of the instrumentalisation of truth itself and those bodies entrusted with finding such truth, and the problem that ‘a lie gets halfway around the world before the law has time to put its trousers on’. Justice has a duty to prevent manipulation of its procedures to suit the ends of war and this panel will explore in what ways this duty can and should be enforced.