This course will examine the legal framework on jus ad bellum in International Law. The prohibition of the use of force is customary international law. However, it has been subjected to fierce challenges due to expanded interpretations of the exceptions contained in the UN Charter. The course will review and discuss the definitions the sources the and scope of international armed conflict, discuss such concepts as armed attack, and aggression, among other topics. The scope of the law will be reviewed by the interpretation of the principles of self-defense through the prism of ICJ’s landmark cases, and, by the positions that States. Students will examine UN procedural and institutional provisions of the United Nations Charter dealing with the use of force, including Security Council authorization of use of force in specific cases and the legal mandate of the UN General Assembly in matters of international peace and security. Analysis of the use of force pursuant to invitation, and pre-emptory self-defense, humanitarian intervention, the Responsibility to Protect, as well as the emergence of “unwilling and unable” test will inform a state of fluidity of the use of force in practice. The students will consider the legitimacy of the expanded interpretations of the exceptions contained in the UN Charter in relation to state practice.
- Professor: Elayne Whyte