Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T13:42:30.590Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The shifting laws on the use of force and the trivialization of the UN collective security system: the need to reconstitute it*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2009

Nicholas Tsagourias
Get access

Abstract

The war on Iraq has fuelled the debate about the nature and meaning of the international security system premised on the United Nations. This paper begins by examining the nature and subsequent modification of the UN collective security system. It focuses on the practice of Security Council authorisations to use force and the expanded notion of self-defence. It identifies as causes of such transformation the changing security environment, power asymmetries and the structural inability of the UN to adapt accordingly. The paper examines the failings of such a system and concludes by offering a framework for an international security system based on legitimacy interpreted as the congruence between processes, actors, claims and practices.

Type
Articles
Information
Netherlands Yearbook of International Law , Volume 34 , December 2003 , pp. 55 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © T.M.C. Asser Press 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. ‘Symposium: The Impact on International Law of a Decade of Measures Against Iraq’, 13 EJIL (2002) pp.1 et seq.Google Scholar

2. United States President's State of the Union Address of 29 January 2002, <http://www.whitehouse.gov>.

3. Keesings Record of World Events (1998) pp. 42697–42700Google Scholar (hereinafter referred to as Keesings).

4. SC Res. 687 (1991) concerning the use of such terms in relation to SC Resolutions, see Thirlway, H., ‘The Law and Procedure of the International court of Justice 1960–1989’, 67 BYIL (1996) p. 1, at p. 29Google Scholar: ‘It is unclear to what extent, if any, the rules as to the interpretation of treaties may be applied, by extension, to the interpretation of the resolutions or decisions of international organisations.’

5. Keesings (2002) pp. 45114–45117; Murphy, S.D., ‘Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law’, 97 AJIL (2003) p. 419, at pp. 419–432.Google Scholar

6. Keesings (2003) at p. 45218

7. Ibid., at p. 45266.

8. Ibid., at p. 45314.

9. Ibid., at pp. 45115–45117.

10. Ibid., at pp. 45264–45265.

11. Ibid., at pp. 45313–45319.

12. Ibid., at pp. 45433–45434.

13. Simma, B., ed., The Charter of the United Nations: A Commentary, 2nd edn. (Oxford, Oxford University Press 2002) pp. 701 et seq.Google Scholar

14. Combination of Articles 24, 25, 39, 42, 43, 106 UN Charter. Russell, R. and Muther, J.A., A History of the United Nations Charter: The Role of the United States 1940–1945 (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1958) pp. 99 et seq.Google Scholar; Goodrich, L.M., The United Nations in a Changing World, (New York, Columbia Press 1974) p. 21Google Scholar: ‘…the drafters of the Charter came to the conclusion that a form of organisation that followed the general lines of the League system, but incorpo rated the concert principles that peace could only be maintained so long as the major powers had an interest and were willing to cooperate in maintaining it, had at least a chance of success.’ Franck, T.M, The Power of Legitimacy Among Nations', (Oxford, Oxford University Press 1990) pp. 175–182.Google Scholar

15. ‘Thus, the primary restraint and check against excessive interventionism by the Security Council lies with an inherent element of the decision-making process within this body itself. This element, and not dynamic intervention by the ICJ, is the main guardian of the Security Council's abstention from irrationality and abuse of powers.’ Herdegen, M., ‘The “Constitutionalisation” of the UN Security System’, 27 Vanderbilt J Trans. L (1994) p. 135, at p. 154.Google Scholar

16. Degni-Segui, R., ‘Article 24, paragraph 1 et 2’, in Cot, J.P. and Pellet, A., eds., La Charte des Nations Unies (Paris, Economica 1985) p. 447, at p. 457Google Scholar: ‘Il est préférable que le système de sécurité collective ne fonctionne pas, que l'Organisation par conséquent, demeure sans agir face à un conflit détérminé, plutôt que de prendre des mesures qui risqueraient d'entraîner une crise entre les grandes puissances.’

17. Herndl, K., ‘Reflections on the Role, Functions and Procedures of the Security Council of the United Nations’, 206 Hague Recueil (1987) p. 289Google Scholar; Caron, D.D., ‘The Legitimacy of the Collective Authority of the Security Council’, 87 AJIL (1993) p. 552.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

18. Russbach, O., ONU contre ONU: le droit international confisqué, (Paris, éditions La Découverte 1994).Google Scholar

19. Blokker, N., ‘Is Authorization Authorized? Powers and Practice of the UN Security Council to Authorize the Use of Force by ‘Coalitions of the Able and Willing’’, 11 EJIL (2000) p. 541CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lobel, J. and Ratner, M., ‘Bypassing the Security Council: Ambiguous Authorisations to Use Force, Cease-fires and the Iraqi Inspection Regime’, 93 AJIL (1999) p. 124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

20. Other resolutions are for example SC Res. 794 (1992) [Somalia]; SC Res. 940 (1994) [Haiti]; SC Res. 1264 (1999) [East Timor].

21. Statement by the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, in Answer to a Parliamentary Question, Tuesday 18 March 2003, <www.fco.gov.uk>. Also see ‘Remarks of the Honorable William Howard Taft, IV, Legal Adviser, US Department of State Before the National Association of Attorneys General, March 20, 2003’, <http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/nea/iraqtext2003/032129taft.htm>. Taft, W.H. IV, Buchwald, T.F., ‘Preemption, Iraq, and International Law’, 97 AJIL (2003) p. 557 et seq.Google Scholar

22. SC Res. 1441 (2002), para 1

23. Ibid., para 2.

24. Ibid., para 4.

25. Ibid., para 13.

26. ‘Statement by the Attorney General’, supra n. 2; Wedgwood, R., ‘The Fall of Saddam Hussein: Security Council Mandates and Preemptive Self-Defence’, 97 AJIL (2003) p. 576, at pp. 578–582CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Yoo, J., ‘International Law and the War in Iraq’, 97 AJIL (2003) p. 663, at pp. 567–571CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wedgwood, R., ‘The Enforcement of Security Council Resolution 687: The Threat of Force Against Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction’, 92 AJIL (1998) p. 724.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

27. It is claimed that in effect they constitute delegation of power. Sarooshi, D., The United Nations and the Development of Collective Security (Oxford, Oxford University Press 1999) p. 13Google Scholar: ‘An authorisation, thus, may represent the conferring on an entity of a very limited right to exercise a power, or part there of; … It is this single characteristic of a delegation of power – the transfer of a power of discretionary decision making-that allows it to be distinguished in general terms from an authorisation.’ Also ibid., pp. 32–46; Case 9/56, Meroni & Co. Industrie Mettallurgische, S.A.S. v. High Authority of the European Coal and Steal Community [1958] ECR 133, 152; Case 22/70, Commission v. Council (ERTA) [1971] ECR 263.

28. ‘Reparations for Injuries Suffered in the Service of the United Nations’, ICJ Rep. (1949) p. 174, at p. 182Google Scholar. See also Dissenting Opinion by Judge Hackworth according to which ‘… the Organisation is one of delegated and enumerated powers. It is to be presumed that such powers as the member States desired to confer upon it are stated either in the Charter of in complementary agreements concluded by them. Powers not expressed cannot freely be implied. Implied powers flow from a grant of expressed powers, and are limited to those that are “necessary” to the exercise of the powers expressly granted.’ Ibid., at p. 198; Rama-Montaldo, M., ‘International Legal Personality and Implied Powers of International Organisations’, BYIL (1970) p. 111, at pp. 129–131Google Scholar; Sloan, B., ‘The United Nations Charter as a Constitution’, 1 Pace YBIL (1961), p. 61Google Scholar. ‘Szasz, P.C., ‘Centralised and Decentralised Law Enforcement: The Security Council and the General Assembly Acting Under Chapters VII and VIII’, in Delbrück, J., Allocation of Law Enforcement Authority in the International System, (Berlin, Duncker & Humblot 1995) p. 17, at p. 30Google Scholar; Skubiszewski, K., ‘Implied Powers of International Organisations’, in Dinstein, Y., ed., International Law in Times of Perplexity: Essays in Honour of Shabtai Rosenne, (Dordrecht, M. Nijhoff 1989) p. 855Google Scholar; Arangio-Ruiz, G., ‘The “Federal Analogy” and the UN Charter Interpretation: A Critical Issue’, 8 EJIL (1997) p. 1, at pp. 16–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

29. ‘Certain Expenses of the United Nations’, ICJ Rep. (1962) p. 150, at p. 167Google Scholar: ‘It cannot be said that the Charter has left the Security Council impotent in the face of an emergency situation when the agreements under Article 43 have not been concluded’.

30. Dissenting opinion by Judge Winiarski, in ibid., at p. 230: ‘The Charter has set forth the purposes of the United Nations in very wide, and for that reason too indefinite terms. The fact that an organ of the United Nations is seeking to achieve one of those purposes does not suffice to render its action lawful. The Charter … carefully created organs and determined their competence and means of action. The intention of those who drafted it was clearly to abandon the possibility of useful action rather than to sacrifice the balance of carefully established fields of competence, as can be seen for example in the case of the voting in the Security Council …’. Goodrich, L.M., Hambro, E. and Simons, A.P., Charter of the United Nations: Commentary and Documents, 3rd rev. edn. (New York, Columbia University Press 1969) at pp. 314–317.Google Scholar

31. It has been decided in another case that ‘… the competence of the Organisation therefore should not be extended by interpretation. There may be some force in this argument, but the question in every case must resolve itself into what the terms of the Treaty actually mean, and it is from this point of view that the Court proposes to examine the question’. ‘Competence of the International Labour Organisation with respect to Agricultural Production’, Advisory Opinion of 12 August 1922, PCIJ Series B, Nos. 2 and 3, p. 23. ‘Legal Consequences for States of the Continued Presence of South Africa on Namibia (South West Africa) Notwithstanding Security Council Resolution 276 (1970)’, ICJ Rep. (1971) p. 2, at p. 52, para. 110Google Scholar: ‘… members have conferred upon the Security Council powers commensurate with its responsibility for the maintenance of peace and security’.

32. Arts. 2(4), 24, 39–42 UN Charter.

33. Art. 25 UN Charter.

34. See ‘Dissenting Opinion of Judge Spender in Certain Expenses of the United Nations’, ICJ Rep. (1962) p. 150, at p. 197Google Scholar; Koskenniemi, M., ‘The Police in the Temple: Order, Justice and the UN: a dialectical view’, 6 EJIL (1995) p. 325, at p. 327CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bothe, M., ‘Les limites des pouvoirs du Conseil de securité’, in Dupuy, R.-J., ed, The Development of the Role of the Security Council (Dordrecht, Martinus Nijhoff 1993) p. 67, at p. 73.Google Scholar

35. Kelsen, H., The United Nations: A Critical Analysis of its Fundamental Problems, (New York, Stevens & Sons 1951) p. 294Google Scholar: ‘The purpose of action under Article 39 is not: to maintain or restore the law, but to maintain, or restore peace, which is not necessary identical with the law …’ For the view that there exist legal restraints see Golland-Debbas, V., ‘Security Council Enforcement Action and Issues of State Responsibility’, 43 ICLQ (1994) p. 55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

36. Art. 24(2) UN Charter; ‘Conditions of Admissions of a State to Membership in the United Nations (Art. 4 of the Charter), Advisory Opinion’, ICJ Rep. (1947/1948) p. 57, at p. 64Google Scholar: ‘The political character of an organ cannot release it from the observance of the treaty provisions established by the Charter when they constitute limitations on its powers or criteria for its judgment.’

37. When the SC authorises the use of force, it customary employs the term ‘all necessary means’. See for example Resolution 678 (1990) and more recently in Resolution 1464 (2003) in relation to Côte d'Ivoire. On a previous occasion, the British government maintained that ‘Resolution 949 does not as such authorise the use of force’ by threatening Iraq with serious consequences. BYIL (1995) p. 727. During the adoption of Resolution 1441 Mr Negroponte, US Representative to the United Nations declared ‘[t]his resolution contains no “hidden triggers” and no “automaticity” with respect to the use of force’; See also the statement by Sir Jeremy Greenstock, British Representative ‘[t]here is no “automaticity” in this resolution. If there is a further Iraqi breach of its disarmament obligations, the matter will return to the Council for discussion as required in paragraph 12. We would expect the Security Council then to meet its responsibilities.’ S/PV.4644.

38. See for instance in relation to Iraq SC Res. 1154 (1998) and SC Res. 1204 (1998). For the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the ‘US should consult the Security Council before military strikes take place’ whereas according to the US it ‘did not preclude the unilateral use of force’. Keesings (1998) at p. 42163. On 16–20 December 1998, the US and UK forces carried out air strikes on Iraqi military facilities. Keesings (1998) at p. 42697; Torrelli, M., ‘Le nouveau défi iraqien à la communauté internationale: la dialectique des volontés’, 102 RGDIP (1998) p. 435.Google Scholar

39. Quigley, J., ‘The “Privatisation” of Security Council Enforcement Action: A Threat to Multilaterism’, 17 Michigan JIL (1996) p. 249Google Scholar. In his Supplement to Agenda for Peace (1995) Boutros Boutros-Ghali, former UN Secretary-General, recognises the benefits and drawbacks of such process. As he wrote ‘The experience of the last few years has demonstrated both the value that can be gained and the difficulties that can arise when the Security Council entrusts enforcement tasks to groups of Member States. On the positive side, this arrangement provides the Organisation with an enforcement capacity it would not otherwise have and is greatly preferable to the unilateral use of force by Member States without reference tot eh United Nations. On the other hand, the arrangement can have a negative impact on the Organisation's stature and credibility. There is also the danger that the States concerned may claim international legitimacy and approval for forceful actions that were not in fact envisaged by the Security Council when it gave its authorisation to them.’ Ibid., para. 80.

40. Corten, O. and Dubuisson, F., ‘L'hypothèse d'une règie émergente fondant une intervention militaire sur une “autorisation implicite” du conseil de sécurité’, RGDIP (2000) p. 873.Google Scholar

41. SC Res. 1199 (1998); SC Res. 1203 (1998).

42. Caron, D.D., ‘The Legitimacy of the Collective Authority of the Security Council’, 87 AJIL (1993) p. 552CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lobel, J. and Ratner, M., ‘Bypassing the Security Council: Ambiguous Authorisations to Use Force, Cease-fires and the Iraqi Inspection Regime’, 93 AJIL (1999) p. 124, at pp. 133–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

43. ‘Where a particular proposal has been considered but rejected, for whatever reason, it is not possible to interpret the instrument or judicial situation to which the proposal related as if the latter had in face been adopted.’ Dissenting Opinion of Judge Fitzmaurice in ‘Legal Consequences for States of the Continued Presence of South Africa on Namibia (South West Africa) Notwithstanding Security Council Resolution 276 (1970)’, ICJ Rep. (1971) p. 2, at p. 275.Google Scholar

44. ‘Case Concerning the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros Project’, ICJ Rep. (1997) p. 53, para.75Google Scholar; Separate Opinion of Sir Hersch Lauterpacht in ‘Admissibility of Hearings of Petitioners by the Committee on South West Africa’, ICJ Rep. (1956) p. 46Google Scholar: ‘It is a sound principle of law that whenever a legal instrument of continuing validity cannot be applied literally owing to the conduct of one of the parties, it must, without allowing that party to take advantage of its own conduct, be applied in a way approximating most closely to its primary object. To do that is to interpret and to give effect to the instrument – not to change it.’

45. As the ICJ said ‘even if such principle [approximate application] existed, it could by definition only be employed within the limits of the treaty in question’. ‘Case Concerning the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros Project’, ICJ Rep. (1997) p. 53, para 76.Google Scholar

46. Meeker, L., ‘Defensive Quarantine and the Law’, 57 AJIL (1963) p. 515, at pp. 520–523CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Akehurst, M., ‘Enforcement Action by Regional Agencies, with special reference to OAS’, BYIL (1967) p. 175, at p. 217.Google Scholar

47. SC Res. 1244 (1999) in relation to Kosovo. SC Res. 1483 (2003) recognised the US and UK as occupying powers in Iraq. See also SC Res. 1511 (2003) in relation to Iraq. For other cases, see SC Res. 788 (1992) that commended the ECOWAS action in Liberia.

48. ‘… this resolution [1441] does not constrain any Member State from acting to defend itself against the threat posed by Iraq or to enforce relevant United Nations resolutions and protect world peace and security’. Statement by Mr Negroponte, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations, S/PV. 4644 (8 November 2002).

49. A/57/PV.2, p. 10.

50. South West Africa cases (Ethiopia v. South Africa, Liberia v. South Africa), ICJ Rep. (1966) p. 4, at p. 29, para 33: ‘But no right was reserved to them, individually as States, and independently of their participation in the institutional activities of the League, as component parts of it, to claim in their own name,-still less as agents authorised to represent the League,-the right to invigilate the sacred trust,-to set themselves up as separate custodians of the various mandates. This was the role of the League organs.’ ‘Legal Consequences for States of the Continued Presence of South Africa on Namibia (South West Africa) Notwithstanding Security Council Resolution 276 (1970)’, ICJ Rep. (1971) p. 2, at p. 55, para. 120Google Scholar. Although the suspension of offensive combat operations was in the first place agreed between the government of Kuwait, the member-states cooperating with Kuwait and Iraq, the issue was taken up by the Security Council through Resolutions 686 and 687. ‘Reparations for Injuries Suffered in the Service of the United Nations’, ICJ Rep. (1949) p. 174, at p. 179.Google Scholar

51. According to the UN Secretary General ‘this is an issue not for any State alone, but for the international community as a whole.’ UN Press Release SG/SM/8600 at <http://www.un.org>. Gowlland-Debbas, V., ‘The Limits of Unilateral Enforcement of Community Objectives in the Framework of UN Peace Maintenance’, 11 EJIL (2000) p. 361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

52. See Dissenting Opinion of Judge Fitzmaurice in ‘Legal Consequences for States of the Continued Presence of South Africa on Namibia (South West Africa) Notwithstanding Security Council Resolution 276 (1970)’, ICJ Rep. (1971) p. 2, at p. 293Google Scholar: ‘… limitations on the power of the Security Council are necessary because of the all too great ease with which any acutely controver sial international situation can be represented as involving a latent threat to peace and security, even where it is really too remote genuinely to constitute one’.

53. Denis, C., ‘La resolution 678 (1990) peut-elle legitimer les actions armies menees contre l'Iraq posterieurement a l'adoption de la resolution 687 (1991)?’, Rev. Belge de droit International (1998) p. 485, at p. 519Google Scholar: ‘Si le Conseil de sécurité adoptait une résolution par laquelle il autorise des états a recourir a la force de façon indéterminée ratione temporis or ratione materiae, d'une part, ce dernier abandonnerait les responsabilités qui lui ont été conférées par la Charte puisqu'il n'exercerait plus de contrôle sur les ou sur les actions armées enterprise(s) et, de l'autre, il irait à l'encontre du principe de l'interdiction de l'emploi de la force dans les relations internationales en permettant ainsi que, dans certains cas, les Etats soient en situation de con flit permanent.’

54. ‘The language of a resolution of the Security Council should be carefully analysed before a conclusion can be made as to its binding effect. In view of the nature of the powers under Article 25, the question whether they have been in fact exercised is to be determined in each case, having regard to the terms of the resolution to be interpreted, the discussions leading to it, the Charter provisions invoked and, in general, all circumstances that might assist in determining the legal consequences of the resolution of the Security Council. ‘Legal Consequences for States f the Continued Presence of South Africa on Namibia (South West Africa) Notwithstanding Security Council Resolution 276 (1970)’, ICJ Rep. (1971) p. 2, at p. 53, para. 114.Google Scholar

55. Denis, loc. cit. n. 53, at p. 492; Kirsch, N., ‘Unilateral Enforcement of the Collective Will: Kosovo, Iraq and the Security Council’, 3 Max Planck YB of UN Law (1999) p. 59, at p. 69.Google Scholar

56. SC Res. 687, paras. 4, 22, 28 and 34.

57. For instance, SC Res. 707 (1991) states in the preamble that Resolution 687 ‘established the cease-fire and provided the conditions essential to the restoration of peace and security in the region’. In another case, the SC declared that the armistice between Israel and Egypt is of a perma nent nature irrespective of any violations. See SC Res. 95 (1951).

58. Stone, J., Legal of Armed Conflict (London, Stevens 1954), p. 644Google Scholar: ‘One modern trend in regard to general armistices, however, is that they represent no mere temporary halting of hostilities … but a kind of de facto termination of war, which is later consummated and completed by the final treaty of peace.’ Morriss, D.M., ‘From War to Peace: A Study of Cease-Fire Agreements and the Evolving Role of the United Nations’, 36 Virginia JIL (1996) p. 801, at p. 815Google Scholar: ‘Only in the case of a U.N. enforcement action that results in a complete military victory as in the U.N.'s response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, will the “cease-fire” approach the armistice and peace treaty as the final resolution of a conflict.’ von Glahn, G., Law Among Nations, 6th edn. (New York, Macmillan 1992) p. 727Google Scholar; Klafkowski, A., ‘Les formes de cessation de l’état de guerre en droit international’, 149 Hague Recueil (1976) p. 217, at p. 265Google Scholar; Lauterpacht, H., Oppenheim's International Law, Vol. II, ‘Disputes, War and Neutrality’, 7th edn. (London, Longmans, Green and Co. 1952) at pp. 605–606Google Scholar; Baxter, R.R., ‘Armistices and other forms of suspension of hostilities’, 149 Hague Receuil (1976) p. 353, at p. 382Google Scholar. Denis, loc. cit. n. 53, at p. 502. Also see statement by Mr Ayala Lasso (Ecuador): ‘[the resolution] marks the end of the phase of hostilities in the Gulf conflict and seeks to establish the foundations for a stable, permanent peace in the region’. Weller, M., ed., Iraq and Kuwait: The Hostilities and Their Aftermath (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 1993) p. 118.Google Scholar

59. Count Bernadotte's instructions following the 15 July 1948 cease-fire imposed by SC Res. 54 (1948) in Morriss, loc. cit. n. 58, at p. 839. In relation to Korea, the view that violations of the Military Armistice Agreement (1953) will reactivate Resolution 83 that recommended states to furnish assistance to Korea to repel the attack has been squarely and consistently rejected. Dinstein, Y., War, Aggression and Self-Defence, 3rd edn. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 2001) pp. 140–142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

60. As it was said in relation to Resolution 678 ‘in effect it was a delegation to the President of the United States of the discretion to decide, on the basis of circumstances as he appreciated them and with such consultation of the states associated with him as he deemed necessary, when to use force.’ Chayes, A., ‘The Use of Force in the Persian Gulf’, in Damrosch, L. Fisler and Scheffer, D.J., Law and Force in the New International Order (Boulder CO, Westview Press 1991) p. 3, at p. 10.Google Scholar

61. Koskenniemi, M., ‘The Place of Law in Collective Security’, 17 Michigan JIL (1996) p. 455, at p. 461Google Scholar; Weston, B.H., ‘Security Council Resolution 678 and Persian Gulf Decision Making: Precarious Legitimacy’, 85 AJIL (1991) p. 516, at pp. 526–527.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

62. Franck, T.M., Fairness in International Law and Institutions, (Oxford, Oxford University Press 1995) pp. 25–46.Google Scholar

63. Schachter, O., ‘An Overview’, in Schachter, O. and Joyner, C.C., United Nations Legal Order (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 1995) Vol. 1, p. 14Google Scholar: ‘What is important for these organs are the national interests and values at stake, the expectations of members and the costs of proposed measures.’ For instance, Resolution 678 was negotiated outside the SC. See Freudenschuss, H., ‘Unilaterism and Collective Security: Authorisations of the Use of force by the UN Security Council’, 5 EJIL (1994) p. 492, at pp. 496–499.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

64. ‘Congress Authorisation for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002’ Pub. L. No. 107–243, 116 Stat. 1498 (2002) <http://www.whitehouse.gov>.

65. Dinstein, op. cit. n. 59, at pp. 169–173; Case Concerning Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua, ICJ Rep. (1986) p. 14 (hereinafter referred to as Nicaragua case) paras. 194–195, 210–211, 247–249.

66. In the Nicaragua case, the ICJ distinguished between ‘grave forms of the use of force’, those constituting an armed attack, from other, less grave forms, that may justify ‘proportionate countermeasures’ by the victim state. Nicaragua case, paras. 247–249. Even in such a case, according to Article 48 of the ILC's Articles on State Responsibility, third states can invoke the responsibility of the breaching state for erga omnes or jus cogens obligations only, whereas their right to take countermeasures either individually or collectively is disputed. The use of force is always impermissible. Crawford, J., International Law Commission's Articles on State Responsibility: Introduction, Text and Commentaries (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 2002) at pp. 302–305.Google Scholar

67. Gentili, A., De Jure Belli Libri Tres (1588–89)Google Scholar in Scott, J.B., ed., The Classics of International Law (Oxford, Clarendon Press 1933) Vol. II, Bk. 1, ch. XIII, p. 59Google Scholar: ‘This right of self-defence, it should be observed, has its origin directly and chiefly, in the fact that nature commits to each his own protection …’; Grotius, H., De Jure Belli ac Pacis Libri Tres, in Scott, , ed., The Classics of International Law (Washington, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace 1995) Vol. II, Bk. II, ch. I, s. iii, p. 172Google Scholar; Suarez, F., De Triplici Virtute Theologica, Fide, Spe, et Charitate (1621), in Scott, J.B., ed., The Classics of International Law (Oxford, Clarendon Press 1933) ‘Disputation XIII: On Charity’, sec. 1, para. 4, pp. 802–803Google Scholar: ‘Defensive war not only it is permitted but sometimes even commended … The reason supporting it is that the right of self-defence is natural and necessary’. de Vittoria, F., De Indis et de Jure Belli Relectiones, Scott, J.B., ed., The Classics of International Law (Oxford, Clarendon Press 1933) ‘De Indis Relectio Posterior Sive De Jure Belli Hispanorum in Babados’, p. 168, para. 424.5Google Scholar: ‘But defence can be resorted to at the very moment of the danger … and so when the necessity of defence has passed there is an end to the lawfulness of war’.

68. Nicaragua case, p. 14, at p. 94, para. 176; Bindschedler, R.L., ‘La délimitation des compétences des Nations Unies’, 108 Hague Receuil (1963) p. 307, at p. 397Google Scholar: ‘La Charte ne fait que reconnaître le droit de défense existant et défini par le droit international général.’ The customary law limitations refer mainly to the principles of necessity and proportionality. See ‘Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, Advisory Opinion of 8 July 1996’, ICJ Rep. (1998) p. 225, para. 41.Google Scholar

69. Dinstein, op. cit. n. 59, at p. 182.

70. Nicaragua case, paras. 176, 193; Kelsen, H., Law of the United Nations (London, Stevens and Sons 1950) pp. 797–798.Google Scholar

71. Nicaragua case, para. 195; Simma, ed., op. cit. n. 13, at pp. 803 et seq.

72. Nicaragua case, para. 193.

73. Nicaragua case, para. 249.

74. The Caroline case (1841) 29 BFSP 1137–1138. Waldock, C.H.M., ‘The Regulation of the Use of Force by Individual States in International Law’, 81 Hague Receuil (1952) p. 451, at p. 498Google Scholar: ‘… where there is convincing evidence not merely of threats and potential danger but of an attack being actually mounted, then an armed attack may be said to have begun to occur, though it has not passed the frontier.’ Woolsey, T.D., Introduction to the Study of International Law, 6th edn. revised and enlarged (London, Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivingston 1888) p. 185Google Scholar: ‘[t]he prevention of intended injury is a ground of war. This indeed is a case of self defence; only the injury must be not remote nor constructive but fairly inferable from the preparations and intentions of the other party’. The National Security Strategy of the United States of America (September 2002) p. 15: ‘For centuries, international law recognised that nations need not suffer an attack before they can lawfully take action to defend themselves against forces that present an imminent danger of attack.’ <http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss.pdf>.

75. In relation to the Israeli attack on the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981 see UN Doc. S/PV.2280 (1981); Beres, L.R., ‘Israel and Anticipatory Self-Defence’, 8 Arizona JI & Comp. L (1991) p. 89Google Scholar. The Security Council condemned the Israeli action as ‘clear violation of the Charter of the United Nations and the norms of international conduct.’ SC Res. 487 (1991). Israel has also justified the Six Day War (1967) on the basis of self-defence. UN Doc. S/PV. 1348(1967).

76. Pre-emptive self-defence is distinguished from anticipatory self-defence because the latter requires an imminent attack. Pre-emptive self-defence sometimes is called preventive self-defence. See Dinstein, op. cit. n. 59, at p. 168.

77. In relation to Iraq, see ‘Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Assessment of the British Government’, <www.official-documents.co.uk/document/reps/iraq/cover.htm>. Of course intelligence proved to be inflated and inaccurate and probably used to justify the political aims of the coalition. This led the US Weapons Hunter in Iraq, Mr Kay, to say ‘if you cannot rely on good, accurate intelligence that is credible to the American people and to others abroad, you certainly can't have a policy of pre-emption. Pristine intelligence is a fundamental bench stone for any policy of pre-emption to even be thought about’, The Times (22 November 2003).

78. The National Security Strategy of the United States of America, (September 2002) p. 15 <http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss.pdf>.

79. de Vitoria, F., Political Writings, Pagden, A. and Lawrence, J., eds. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 1991) ‘On the Law of War’, 1.2, para 9Google Scholar: ‘… the injured party … may not only defend itself, but may also carry the war into its attacker's territory and teach its enemy a lesson … Otherwise the injured party would have no adequate self-defence; enemies would not abstain from harming others, if their victims were content only to defend themselves’.

80. de Vattel, E., Le Droit Des Gens ou Principes de la Loi Naturelle, appliqués à la Conduite et aux Affaires des Nations et des Souverains, translation Fenwick, C.G. (Washington, Carnegie Institution of Washington 1916)Google Scholar in Classics of International Law, Bk I, ch. II, para 16; Bonfils, H., Manuel de droit international public, 6th edn. (Paris, A Rousseau 1912) para. 242, p. 143Google Scholar: ‘Un état a incontestablement le droit de prendre toutes les mesures destinée a garantir son existence contre les dangers qui la menacent. La conversation de soi-même est un devoir pour les Etats. Il est presque puéril de le constater.’

81. Fiore, P., Nouveau droit international public tome premier, translation from Italian by Pradier-Fodéré, P. (Paris, Auguste Durand et Pedone-Lauriel 1868) p. 261Google Scholar: ‘Toutes les nations ont non seulement le droit de se perfectionner et de s'agrandir, mais encore celui de se conserver, car la conservation est la base fondamentale qui assure le progrès et favorise les développements de la civilisation. Le droit de conservation implique d'autres droit secondares; parmi ceux-ci, non seulement est compris le droit de repousser toute attaque extérieure contre sa propre conservation, d'ou naît le droit de légitime défense, mais encore celui d’éloigner et de repousser toutes les conditions qui pourraient nuire a sa propre conservation et empêcher le propre perfectionnement.’ Giraud, E., ‘La Théorie de la légitime défense’, 49 Hague Receuil (1934) p. 687, at pp. 738–739Google Scholar: ‘Les états ont le droit et le devoir d'assurer leur conversation et leur développement. La sauvegarde de ces intérêts justifie alors le recours a la force, alors même que l’état n'est victime d'aucune agression, ou n'est pas sous unemenace actuelle d'agression’.

82. ‘Tout état, en vertu de son existence même, a le droit d'exister, de se maintenir, de se développer. Ce droit, qu'on appelle le droit de conservation, est le premier des droits des Etats et le plus absolu. C'est le droit essentiel par excellence. Rivier, A., Principes du Droit des Gens, Vol. 1 (Paris, A. Rousseau 1896) p. 255.Google Scholar

83. Pradier-Fodéré, P., Traité de Droit International Public Européen et Américain, Vol. I, (Paris, Pedone-Lauriel 1885) para. 235, p. 382Google Scholar: ‘[le droit de conservation] comprend tous les droits incidents essentiels pour sauvegarder l'intégrité de l'existence tant physique que morale des Etats: le droit de repousser tout ce qui peut empêcher sa propre conservation et son développement, le droit d’éloigner tout mal présent et de se prémunir contre tout danger de préjudice future, le droit de développer les conditions nécessaires a son existence perfectible.’

84. Rivier, op. cit. n. 82, at p. 398: ‘L'Etat en danger est seul appréciateur de ce qui le concerne; son droit d'indépendance s'oppose a tout contrôle que d'autres prétendraient exercer a son égard.’ Abram Chayes, Legal Adviser to the State Department criticised such interpretation of self-defence in relation to the Cuban Missile Crisis: ‘To accept that reading is to make the occasion for forceful response essentially a question for unilateral national decision that would not only be formally unreviewable, but not subject to intelligent criticism either. There is simply no standard against which this decision could be judged …. In this sense, I believe that an Article 51 defence would have signalled that the United States did not take the legal issues involved very seriously, that in its view the situation was to be governed by national discretion, not international law.’ Chayes, A., The Cuban Missile Crisis (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1974) p. 63.Google Scholar

85. Jennings, R.Y., ‘The Caroline and McLeod Cases’, 32 AJIL (1938) p. 82, at pp. 91–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Schwarzenberger, G., ‘The Fundamental Principles of International Law’, 87 Hague Recuiel (1955) p. 191, at pp. 343–346Google Scholar. Brierly, J.L., The Law of Nations, in SirWaldock, Humphrey, ed., 6th edn., (Oxford, Clarendon Press 1963) p. 404Google Scholar: ‘Such a doctrine would destroy the imperative character of any system of law in which it applied, for it makes all obligation to obey the law merely conditional; and there is hardly an act of international lawlessness which it might not be claimed to excuse’.

86. See criticism by the UN Secretary-General: ‘Rather than wait for that [attack] to happen, they argue, States have the right and obligation to use force pre-emptively … they reserve the right to act unilaterally, or in ad hoc coalition. This logic represents a fundamental challenge to the principles on which, however, imperfectly, world peace and stability have rested for the last fifty-eight years.’ ‘Pre-emption must be considered responsibly, on a case by case basis, but it remains one aspect of every government's duty to protect its people.’ Sofaer, A.D., ‘On the Necessity of Pre-emption’, 14 EJIL (2003).p. 209, p. 226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

87. Tsagourias, N., ‘Globalisation, Order and the Rule of Law’, 11 Finnish YBIL (2000) p. 247, at pp. 252–256.Google Scholar

88. ‘An Agenda for Peace’ (1992) UN Doc. A/47/60, p. 3Google Scholar: ‘In these past few months a conviction has grown among nations large and small, that an opportunity has been regained to achieve the great objectives of the Charter …’

89. For a defence of a selective and, consequently, effective collective security system see Murphy, S. D., ‘The Security Council, Legitimacy, and the Concept of Collective Security After the Cold War’, 32 Columbia J Transn. L (1994) p. 201, at pp. 258–260Google Scholar. As he says ‘… the major powers must be permitted to bring into the process those matters they consider vital to their own interests and to push for those matters to be addressed in a satisfactory manner. … the system should not aspire to treating all threats to the peace equally through automatic and reliable responses’.

90. Tigroudja, H., ‘Quel(s) droit(s) applicable(s) à la “guerre au terrorism”’, 48 AFDI (2002) p. 81, at pp. 86–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

91. This policy has been expressed by diverse US administrations, democrat or republican. For example see ‘National Security Strategy’ (2002) p. 6Google Scholar: ‘While the United States will constantly strive to enlist the support of the international community, we will not hesitate to act alone, if necessary, to exercise our right of self-defence by acting preemptively against such terrorists, to prevent them from doing harm against our people and our country’; Rice, C., ‘Promoting the National Interest’, 79 Foreign Affairs (2000) p. 45, at p. 49CrossRefGoogle Scholar. ‘United States: Administration Policy on Reforming Multilateral Peace Operations’, 33 ILM (1994) p. 705, at p. 802Google Scholar: ‘The United States will maintain the capability to act unilaterally or in coalitions when out most significant interests and those of our friends and allies are at stake. Multilateral peace operations must therefore be places in proper perspective among the instruments of US foreign policy.’ Similarly, former US President George Bush said ‘A desire for international support must not become a prerequisite for acting, though. Sometimes a great power has to act alone.’ Public Papers of the President of the United States. George Bush, 1992–93 (Washington, DC, USGPO 1993) p. 2231.Google Scholar

92. Cronin, B., ‘The Paradox of Hegemony: America's Ambiguous Relationship with the United Nations’, 7 EJIR (2001) pp. 103 et seq.Google Scholar

93. Franck, T.M., ‘What Happens Now? The United Nations After Iraq’, 97 AJIL (2003) p. 607, at p. 616.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

94. ‘Statement by the Attorney General’, supra n. 21.

95. GA Res. 377 (1950) [Uniting for Peace].

96. Bedjaoui, M., The New World Order and the Security Council: Testing the Legality of its Acts, (Dordrecht, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 1994) p. 7Google Scholar: ‘[the Security Council] will not gain in credibility, authority and efficiency unless the conviction takes root that it acts not as an institution above the Charter and international law but as their servant’.

97. The possibility of judicial review of Chapter VII SC decisions or the legal basis of such review is still debated. ‘Legal Consequences for States of the Continued Presence of South Africa on Namibia (South West Africa) Notwithstanding Security Council Resolution 276 (1970)’, ICJ Rep. (1971) p. 2, at para. 45Google Scholar; ‘Certain Expenses of the United Nations’, ICJ Rep. (1962) p. 150, at p. 168Google Scholar; Dissenting Opinion of President Schwebel in ‘Questions of Interpretation and Application of the 1971 Montreal Convention Arising from the Aerial Incident at Lockerbie (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya v. United States), Preliminary Objections, Judgment of 27 February 1998’, ICJ Rep. (1998) pp. 7–13; Prosecutor v. Dusko Tadić a/k/a ‘Dule’, Case No. IT-94–1-T (1995) para. 7: ‘The broad discretion given to the Security Council in the exercise of its Chapter VII authority itself, suggests that decisions taken under this head are not reviewable.’ However, on appeal, the ICTY found that ‘[t]he Security Council is thus subjected to certain constitutional limitations, however broad its powers under the constitution may be. … In any case, neither the text nor the spirit of the Charter conceives of the Security Council as legibus solibus’. Prosecutor v. Dusko Tadić a/k/a ‘Dule’, Case No. IT-94–1-AR72 (1995) para 28. Alvarez, J., ‘Judging the Security Council’, 90 AJIL (1996) p. 1 et seq.CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bowett, D.W., ‘The Court's Role in Relation to International organisations’, in Lowe, V. and Fitzmaurice, M., eds., Fifty Years of the International court of Justice: Essays in Honour of Sir Robert Jennings (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 1996) p. 181, at pp. 190–191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

98. Perle, R., ‘Thank God for the Death of the UN: Its Abject Failure gave Us Only Anarchy, The World Needs Order’, Guardian (21 March 2003)Google Scholar; Glennon, M.J., ‘Why the Security Council Failed’, Foreign Affairs (2003) p. 16.Google Scholar

99. Murphy, S.D., ‘Assessing the Legality of Invading Iraq’, 92 Geo. LJ (2004) p. 14Google Scholar; <http://papers.ssrn.com>.

100. Kennedy, P., The Rise and Fall of Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict 1500–2000 (Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press 1987).Google Scholar

101. Delmas-Marty, M., ‘Du désordre mondial à la force du droit international’, quoting from Bachelard ‘forces imaginantes de l'esprit … elles veulent trouver dans l’être à la fois le primitif et l’éternel’, Le Monde (21 March 2003)Google Scholar.

102. ‘Implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration’, Report of the Secretary-General, A/58/323 (2 September 2003) para. 12.

103. See also ‘Independent International Commission on Kosovo, The Kosovo Report: Conflict, International Response, Lessons Learned’ (2002) particularly pp. 185–198 where NATO's action is characterised as illegal but legitimate.Google Scholar

104. UN Press release SG/SM/8600, ‘Secretary General Says United Nations Has Duty to Exhaust All Possibilities of Peaceful Settlement Before Resorting to Use of Force’ (10 February 2003). <http://www.un.org>. According to the UN S-G Kofi Annan ‘if the military action is to take place without the support of the Council, its legitimacy will be questioned’. Keesings (2003) p. 45315, 45317–453178.Google Scholar

105. ‘Implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration, Report of the Secretary-General’, A/58/323 (2 September 2003) para. 13: ‘The great strength of the United Nations remains its legitimacy … In the international arena there is no substitute for such legitimacy.’

106. ‘But it is not enough to denounce unilaterism, unless we also face up squarely to the concerns that make some States feel uniquely vulnerable, since it is those concerns that drive them to take unilateral action. We must show that those concerns can, and will, be addressed effectively through collective action.’ ‘Secretary-General's Address to the General Assembly’ (23 September 2003)Google Scholar <www.un.org>.

107. Habermas, J., Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy, translated by Rehg, W. (CambridgeMA, MIT Press 1996) p. 119.Google Scholar

108. ‘In particular, the ability of the Security Council to garner the widest possible support for its decisions and its actions will be enhanced if it is perceived to be broadly representative of the international community as a whole as well as the geopolitical realities of the contemporary world. I hope, therefore, that Member States will redouble their efforts to reach agreement on the enlargement of the Security Council.’ ‘Implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration, Report of the Secretary-General’, A/58/323 (2 September 2003) para. 15.

109. Habermas, op. cit. n. 107, at p. 228: ‘The essential intention we connect with the practice of argumentation is characterised by the intention of winning the assent of a universal audience to a problematic proposition in a non-coercive but regulated contest for the better arguments based on the best information and reasons. It is easy to see why the discourse principle requires this kind of practice for the justification of norms and value decisions: whether norms and values could find the rationally motivated assent of all these affected can be judged only from the intersubjectively enlarged perspective of the first-person plural. This perspective integrates the perspectives of each participant's worldview and self-understanding in a manner that is neither coercive nor distorting.’

110. Discussing a common security agenda, the UN Secretary-General observed ‘[t]his can only be achieved if States, in pursuing their national interests, show understanding and respect for global realities and the needs of others.’ ‘Implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration’, Report of the Secretary-General, A/58/323 (2 September 2003) para. 12.

111. Kirgis, F.L. Jr, ‘The Security Council's First Fifty Years’, 89 AJIL (1995) p. 506, at p. 521.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

112. Glennon, M.J., ‘The UN Security Council in a Unipolar World’, 44 Virginia JIL (2003) p. 91, at pp. 97–98.Google Scholar