Serving as a single-volume introduction to the field as a whole, Brownlie’s Principles of Public International Law seeks to present international law as a system that is based on, and helps structure, relations among states and other entities at the international level. It aims to identify the constituent elements of that system in a clear way. This ninth edition has been completely updated to take account of the many developments in international law that have occurred since the 8th edition (2012).
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15. The Use of Force, Collective Security and Peacekeeping
International law aims to regulate the use of force in two ways. First, it stipulates that there is a paramount obligation not to use force to settle disputes, with only limited exceptions; and second, it has at its disposal a procedure whereby the international community itself may use force against those using violence. These are known respectively as the rules on the ‘unilateral use of force’ and the rules of ‘collective security’, both of which are discussed in this chapter.
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Collins v Wilcock [1984] 1 WLR 1172
Essential Cases: Tort Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Collins v Wilcock [1984] 1 WLR 1172. The document also included supporting commentary from author Craig Purshouse.
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16. The Responsibility to Protect
Spencer Zifcak
This chapter discusses the responsibility to protect, which has become the primary conceptual framework within which to consider international intervention to prevent crimes against humanity; it provides the background to the new doctrine’s appearance with a survey of the existing law and practice with respect to humanitarian intervention. It traces the doctrine’s intellectual and political development both before and after the adoption of the World Summit resolutions that embodied it. Debate about the doctrine has been characterized by significant differences of opinion and interpretation between nations of the North and the South. In that context, the chapter concludes with a detailed consideration of the contemporary standing of the doctrine in international law.
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Martin Dixon, Robert McCorquodale, and Sarah Williams
Cases and Materials on International Law, a topical companion for study placing international law directly in the context of contemporary debate, offers broad coverage of international law, and is suitable for use alongside a range of course structures and teaching styles. The book provides readers with a comprehensive selection of case law extracts for their studies. Extracts have been chosen from a wide range of historical and contemporary cases to illustrate the reasoning processes of the courts and to show how legal principles are developed. The book contains the essential cases and materials needed in order to understand and analyse the international legal order, providing notes on selected extracts to explain the complexities of the law. The sixth edition provides expanded coverage of topical areas such as: the use of force in Iraq and Syria and the threat of terrorism; international criminal law and the International Criminal Court; and developments in human rights and international environmental law. The new edition considers the perspectives of non-western and feminist scholars. It also updates core areas of international law, including sovereignty over territory and judicial sovereignty, the law of the sea, state responsibility, international legal personality and peaceful settlement.
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11. The Use of Force, Collective Security and Peacekeeping
International law aims to regulate the use of force in two ways. First, it stipulates that there is a paramount obligation not to use force to settle disputes, with only limited exceptions; and second, it has at its disposal a procedure whereby the international community itself may use force against those using violence. These are known respectively as the rules on the ‘unilateral use of force’ and the rules of ‘collective security’, both of which are discussed in this chapter. This chapter also explores individual criminal responsibility for the crime of aggression.
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Ilias Bantekas and Efthymios Papastavridis
Each Concentrate revision guide is packed with essential information, key cases, revision tips, exam Q&As, and more. Concentrates show you what to expect in a law exam, what examiners are looking for, and how to achieve extra marks. International Law Concentrate provides a comprehensive overview of international law and includes key information, key cases, revision tips, and exam questions and answers. Topics covered include the nature of international law and the international system, sources of international law, and the law of treaties. The book also looks at the relationship between international and domestic law. It considers personality, statehood, and recognition, as well as sovereignty, jurisdiction, immunity, and the law of the sea. The book describes state responsibility and looks at peaceful settlement of disputes. Finally, it looks at the use of force and human rights.
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Anders Henriksen
International Law provides comprehensive and concise coverage of the central issues in public international law. The text takes a critical perspective on various aspects of international law, introducing the controversies and areas of debate without assuming prior knowledge of the topics discussed. Supporting learning features, including central issues boxes, chapter summaries, recommended reading and discussion questions, highlight the essential points. Topics covered include the history of international law, legal sources, the law of treaties, legal personality, jurisdiction and state immunity. The text also looks at the international law of the sea, human rights law, international environmental law, international economic law, the peaceful settlement of disputes, the use of force, the laws of armed conflict and international criminal law.
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11. Aggression
This chapter focuses on the crime of aggression. It first traces the historical development crime of aggression. It then addresses the question of who can be considered a perpetrator of the crime; outlines the manner in which the crime can be committed; examines the controversial question of how ‘aggression’ is to be defined for the purposes of the offence; and distinguishes between aggression and lawful uses of military force in international law. The remainder of the chapter discusses some controversial cases of the use of force and whether they might constitute aggression; outlines the mental element required; explains the applicable law before the International Criminal Court (ICC); and explores the possibility of prosecuting acts of aggression before national courts.
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33. Use or threat of force by states
This chapter discusses international law governing the use or threat of force by states. The UN Security Council has primary responsibility for enforcement action to deal with breaches of the peace, threats to the peace, or acts of aggression. Individual member states have the right of individual or collective self-defence, but only ‘until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security’. However, the practice has evolved of authorizing peacekeeping operations that are contingent upon the consent of the state whose territory is the site of the operations.
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6. A fair cop? Policing and social justice
Benjamin Bowling, Robert Reiner, and James Sheptycki
This chapter examines fairness in policing with reference to issues of race and gender. It first defines the terms of debate—justice, fairness, discrimination—then considers individual, cultural, institutional, and structural theories and applies these to various aspects of policing. It considers the histories of police discrimination in relation to the policing of poverty, chattel slavery, racial segregation, colonialism, religious conflict, and ethnic minority communities, to understand their contemporary legacy. The chapter then examines spheres of police activity where allegations of unfairness and discrimination are particularly salient, including the response to women crime victims of rape and domestic violence, the use of ‘racial profiling’ in stop and search powers, and the use of deadly force. It examines the experiences of people from ethnic minorities, women, gay men, and lesbians within police forces. Through an exploration of the historical and contemporary literature, the chapter draws conclusions on whether or not the police act fairly in democratic societies.
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9. Integrity of the Person
Carla Ferstman
This chapter examines the right to be free from torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment and the right to life. These are fundamental rights which stem from the concepts of human dignity and the integrity of the person, both foundational principles of human rights law. Following explanations of both these principles, the chapter sets out the meaning and content of the right to be free from torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. It then explains the right to life, analysing similarly the content of the right and its limitations and how it has been interpreted in recent jurisprudence and treaty body commentaries.
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3. The Fundamental Principles Governing International Relations
Paola Gaeta, Jorge E. Viñuales, and Salvatore Zappalà
This chapter discusses the fundamental principles governing international relations. The principles represent the fundamental set of standards on which States are united and which allow a degree of relatively smooth international dealings. They make up the apex of the whole body of international legislation. They constitute overriding legal standards that may be regarded as the constitutional principles of the international community. These principles are: the sovereign equality of States; the principle of non-intervention in internal affairs; the prohibition of the threat or use of force; peaceful settlement of international disputes; the duty to co-operate; the principle of good faith; self-determination of peoples; respect for human rights; and the prevention of significant environmental harm. The discussions then turn to the distinguishing traits of the fundamental principles and the close link between the principles and the need for their co-ordination.
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8. The Use of Force
Celebrated for their conceptual clarity, titles in the Clarendon Law Series offer concise, accessible overviews of major fields of law and legal thought. This chapter discusses the use of force in international law. It first considers the early, failed attempts to control the use of force through the Covenant of the League of Nations in 1920 and the 1928 Pact of Paris. It then turns to the post-World War II United Nations Charter that contains a clear and absolute prohibition on the unilateral use of force, except in self-defence. It considers Charter provisions that grant the UN a very wide range of powers, including the power of the Security Council to investigate any situation which might lead to international friction or give rise to a dispute. The chapter goes on to discuss the Law of Armed Conflict or jus in bello.
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Paola Gaeta, Jorge E. Viñuales, and Salvatore Zappalá
This book provides an authoritative account of international law. It preserves and extends Antonio Cassese’s exceptional combination of a historically informed, conceptually strong, and practice-infused analysis of international law, comparing the treatment of most issues in classical international law with the main subsequent developments of this constantly evolving field. Part I of the book covers the origins and foundations of the international community. Part II is about the subjects of the international community, including States, international organizations, individuals, and other international legal subjects. Part III examines the main processes of international law-making and the normative interactions between different norms, of both domestic and international law. Part IV studies the mechanisms of implementation of international law, including State responsibility, diplomatic and judicial means of dispute settlement, and enforcement mechanisms. Part V covers a number of areas which have undergone particular development and reached a high level of specialization, namely, UN law, the law governing the use of force, international humanitarian law, international human rights law, international criminal law, international environmental law, and international economic law (trade and investment).
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16. Collective Security and the use of Armed Force
Paola Gaeta, Jorge E. Viñuales, and Salvatore Zappalà
The Cold War era prevented the UN Security Council from using most of the powers provided for by the UN Charter, including adopting measures under Chapter VII (the so-called ‘collective security system’ which provides for measures ranging from sanctions to the use of armed force) for events deemed (by the Security Council) to be threats to the peace, breaches of the peace, or acts of aggression. However, the end of the Cold War enabled the Security Council to take some of the measures short of force envisaged in Article 41 and to interpret creatively the provisions of the Charter so as to authorize enforcement action through the use of armed force by individual States or coalitions of States. This chapter discusses measures short of armed force; peacekeeping operations; resort to force by States, as well as regional and other organizations, upon authorization of the Security Council; the special case of authorization to use force given by the General Assembly; as well as the right to self-defence and the various situations in which armed force has been used unilaterally by States.
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14. The use of force and collective security
This chapter looks at the use of force and collective security. Today, the United Nations Charter embodies the indispensable principles of international law on the use of force. These include the prohibition on the unilateral use of force found in Article 2(4), and the recognition of the inherent right of all States to use force in self-defence found in Article 51. Finally, under Chapter VII, a collective security system centred upon the Security Council was established for the maintenance of international peace and security. A key debate over the scope of Article 2(4) is whether a new exception has been recognized which would allow the use of force motivated by humanitarian considerations. It is argued that these ‘humanitarian interventions’ would allow a State to use force to protect people in another State from gross and systematic human rights violations when the target State is unwilling or unable to act.
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15. The law of armed conflict
This chapter assesses the law of armed conflict. The right to resort to armed force, known as ‘jus ad bellum’, is a body of law that addresses the permissibility of entering into war in the first place. Despite the restrictions imposed by this body of law, it is clear that international law does not fully forbid the use of force, and instances of armed disputes between and within States continue to exist. Consequently, a second, older body of law exists called ‘jus in bello’, or the law of armed conflict, which has sought to restrain, or at least to regulate, the actual conduct of hostilities. The basic imperative of this body of law has been to restrict warfare in order to account for humanitarian principles by prohibiting certain types of weapons, or protecting certain categories of persons, such as wounded combatants, prisoners of war, or the civilian population.
Book
Martin Dixon, Robert McCorquodale, and Sarah Williams
Cases and Materials on International Law, a topical companion for study placing international law directly in the context of contemporary debate, offers broad coverage of international law, and is suitable for use alongside a range of course structures and teaching styles. The book provides readers with a comprehensive selection of case law and other relevant extracts for their studies. Extracts have been chosen from a wide range of historical and contemporary cases, treaties, legislation and commentary to show how international legal principles are developed. The book contains the essential cases and materials needed in order to understand and analyse the international legal order, providing notes on selected extracts to explain the complexities of legal developments. The seventh edition expands its coverage of core areas of international law, such as state responsibility, jurisdiction and international legal personality, and consequently reduces areas which now tend to be dealt with in separate courses, such as international criminal law and international economic law. It provides expanded coverage of topical areas such as: the use of force in Ukraine ; Covid-19 pandemic; Brexit; new Advisory Opinions by the International Court of Justice; climate change issues and developments in human rights and international environmental law. The new edition continues to include the perspectives of non-western and feminist scholars.
