The case, brought against the government by arms control campaigners, looks at whether British-sold weapons have been used to commit war crimes in Yemen.
Unrelenting violence in one of the Middle East's poorest countries, Yemen, has so far killed more than 10,000 people and unleashed a humanitarian crisis.
Now, a landmark court case is looking at whether Britain bears any responsibility for the suffering.
Andrew Smith is a spokesman for the UK-based Campaign Against Arms Trade, the organisation that launched the case against the goverment.
He says weapons sold to Saudi Arabia by Britain are being used to commit war crimes in Yemen, so arms exports to the country should be stopped.
"For two years the UK has been complicit in the Saudi-led destruction of Yemen. We have seen UK fighter jets and UK bombs being central to that bombardment and central to the destruction which has taken place. On paper, UK arms export criteria is very clear. It says if there is a clear risk that weapons might be used in a serious violation of international humanitarian law, then arms sales should not go ahead."
Saudi Arabia rejects the claims but the Campaign argues a range of international organisations, including a United Nations Panel of Experts and the European Parliament, have labelled Saudi-led air strikes as unlawful.
The judicial review, expected to run for three days, will rule on whether the UK must stop issuing export licences for weapons to Saudi Arabia and cancel existing ones.
Mr Smith says Saudi Arabia is a major player in British arms sales.
"Saudi Arabia is by far the largest buyer of UK arms. Since the bombing of Yemen began almost two years ago the UK has licensed almost 3 billion pounds' worth of weapons. These include the fighter jets which are flying overhead, these include bombs which are falling from the sky."
Britain claims to have one of the 'most robust arms export control regimes in the world,' but campaigners argue if that were the case, the issue never would have made it this far.
"It shouldn't take NGOs like Campaign Against Arms Trade to take the government to court for it to follow its own arms export criteria. We always hear about how the UK stands for human rights and democracy around the world, meanwhile it's arming and supporting some of the most brutal repressive regimes in the world, none more so than Saudi Arabia."
As the case gets underway, the suffering in Yemen is growing.
Fergus Drake, the director of Global Programmes for Save the Children, describes the situation as "off-the-scale."
"There are over ten million children in need of life-saving assistance and half a million children have severe and acute malnutrition. So I went to a hospital that is in the northern capital of Saana, it's had its windows broken repeatedly because of bombs, the wards were full of skeletal children, but there were also children on those wards who were suffering from easily preventable causes like diarrhoea and pneumonia."
The charity is calling for an international investigation into alleged war crimes by all parties in Yemen, which Mr Drake hopes will also bolster global peace efforts in Yemen.
"What we are really calling for as a result of this High Court case is for Britain to stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia, for this external independent investigation to be established and also for the British government to be putting pressure on all sides in the conflict to come back to the peace negotiating table."
The High Court is expected to issue its ruling in a few weeks.
Share
