Original scientific paper
Views on Admissibility of the Unilateral Use of Force in Modern International Law
Davorin Lapaš
; Faculty of Law University of Zagreb Faculty of Law and regular member of the Croatian Academy of Legal Sciences, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Theorists of modern international law have reached an almost universal consensus on the peremptory (ius cogens) norm concerning the prohibition of the unilateral use of force except in self-defense. The prohibition is contained both in the UN Charter and international customary law. However, the reality is often different. As a rule, states do not call into question the above mentioned prohibition on the level of primary norms, but often attempt to introduce exceptions to the prohibition in the form of various secondary norms, often motivated by self-interest. The article presents some of these attempts such as the so-called “humanitarian intervention”, “pro-democratic intervention” etc. analyzing at the same time their impact on the efficiency of the primary prohibitory peremptory norm.
Keywords
use of force; international law; self-defense; UN Charter; international customary law
Hrčak ID:
68262
URI
Publication date:
13.12.2010.
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