The Use of Force in International Law: A Case-Based Approach
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| Anteprima |
The
international law on the use of force is one of the oldest branches of
international law. It is an area twinned with the emergence of
international law as a concept in itself, and which sees law and
politics collide. The number of armed conflicts is equal only to the
number of methodological approaches used to describe them. Many violent
encounters are well known. The Kosovo Crisis in 1999 and the US-led
invasion of Iraq in 2003 spring easily to the minds of most scholars and
academics, and gain extensive coverage in this text. Other conflicts,
including the Belgian operation in Stanleyville, and the Ethiopian
Intervention in Somalia, are often overlooked to our peril. Ruys and
Corten's expert-written text compares over sixty different instances of
the use of cross border force since the adoption of the UN Charter in
1945, from all out warfare to hostile encounters between individual
units, targeted killings, and hostage rescue operations, to ask a
complex question. How much authority does the power of precedent really
have in the law of the use of force?
