Reading Room Document

Introduction and Summary to Opinions Related to Iranian Hostage Crisis

This document introduces and summarizes 25 legal opinions that the OLC issued over the 15-month period of the Iranian Hostage Crisis. These opinions were prepared by the OLC in carrying out its assigned function of assisting the Attorney General in the performance of his functions as chief legal adviser to the President and the Cabinet, and they address a variety of topics in domestic and international law. This introduction and summary is intended to illustrate the factual background of each of these opinions, to illuminate their relationship to one another, and to indicate whether and how the issues discussed in them were later resolved through domestic or international litigation.

October 1, 1984