The Legality and Legitimacy of Unilateral Armed Intervention in an Age of Terror, Neo-Imperialism, and Massive Violations of Human Rights: Is International Law Evolving in the Right Direction?

Canadian Yearbook of International Law

Volumn 42, Issue , 2005, Pages 3-33

  Castel, J G ^a  

^a YORK UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

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EID: 85008690158     PISSN: 00690058     EISSN: 19250169     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0069005800008481     Document Type: Review

References (79)

1. S. Talbott and N. Chandra, eds., The Age of Terror (2001).
2. quoted by A. J. Bacevich, American Empire (2003) at x.
3. Globe and Mail, 2 December 2004, at A1 1.
4. Noam Chomsky, Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance (2003);
5. T. Roszac, La menace américaine (2004).
6. On American national interest, see Condoleezza Rice, "Campaign 2000: Promoting the National Interest" (Jan./Feb. 2000) 79 Foreign Affairs 47.
7. George Orwell, Animal Farm: A Fairy Story (1945) at 9o and Ch. X.
8. The Steamship Lotus, [1927] P. C. I. J. Series A, No. 10, p. 18.
9. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) deals with legal disputes only with the consent of the parties or in an advisory manner at the request of the United Nations. See Statute of the International Court of Justice, available at at Articles 36, 38, and 65.
10. See Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 1969, 1155 U. N. T. S. 331 1969 (in force 1980) at Article 53.
11. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, 1948, 78 U. N. T. S. 277 (1951) [Convention on Genocide].
12. Barcelona Traction, Light and Power Co. (Second Phase) (Belgium v. Spain), [1970] I. C. J. Rep. 3, paras. 33-34.
13. Self determination is a right erga omnes, Advisory opinion on The Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, available at at para. 88
14. citing East Timor (Portugal v. Australia), [1993] I. C. J. Rep. 90, para. 29
15. and advisory opinion on The Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, [1996] I. C. J. Rep. 226, para. 79.
16. See also G. M. Lyons and M. Mastanduno, eds., Beyond Westphalia? State Sovereignty and International Intervention (1995).
17. UN Declaration on the Inadmissibility of Intervention in the Domestic Affairs of States and the Protection of Their Independence and Sovereignty, Res. 2131, UN Doc. A/RES/213 (XX)/Rev. 1, reprinted in (1966) 60 Am. J. Int. L. 662.
18. UN Declaration on Principles of International Law Concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in Accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, 1971, UNGA Res. 2625 (XXV), UNGAOR, 25th Sess., Supp. No. 28 at 121, UN Doc. A/8028/[Declaration on Friendly Relations].
19. Final Act of the Helsinki Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, 1 August 1975, reprinted in (1975) 14 I. L. M. 1292.
20. Resolution 660, UN Doc. S/RES/660 (2 August 1990).
21. Resolution 662, UN Doc. S/RES/662 (9 August 1990).
22. Resolution 678, UN Doc. S/RES/678 (29 November 1990).
23. Resolution 687, UN Doc. S/RES/687 (3 April 1991).
24. Resolution 1441, UN Doc. S/RES/1441 (8 November 2002).
25. GA Resolution 3314, 14 December 1974
26. reprinted in (1974) 13 I. L. M. 710 at Article 3 (g).
27. SC Resolution 748, UN Doc. S/RES/748 (31 March 1992)
28. United Kingdom v. United States (1837), 2 Moore 409 [Caroline case].
29. Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. United States of America) (Merits), [1986] I. C. J. Rep. 14, at paras. 187-93 [Military Activities in Nicaragua].
30. See also UN SC Resolution 1368, UN Doc. S/RES/1368 (12 September 2001)
31. and SC Resolution 1373, UN Doc. S/RES/1373 (28 September 2001), which reaffirm the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence.
32. Per Justice Kooijmans in a separate opinion to the advisory opinion on The Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, 9 July 2004, I. C. J. No. 131, at paras. 35-36, available at .
33. See also SC Resolution 1566, UN Doc. S/RES/1556 (8 October 2004), at para. 1: "acts of terrorism... by whomsoever committed"
34. Military Activities in Nicaragua, supra note 31 at para. 176;
35. and advisory opinion on The Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, [1996] I. C. J. Rep. 226, paras. 37-50.
36. Speech by George W. Bush, White House, 17 September 2002, available at at 1.
37. The new policy was fully delineated on that day in a National Security Council text entitled The National Security Strategy of the United States of America, available at at chs. III
38. and V. See also J. Record, "The Bush Doctrine and War with Iraq" (Spring 2003) Parameters: U. S. Army War College Quarterly 4-21.
39. UN High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility, UNGA Doc. A/59/565, at paras. 190-92 [More Secure World].
40. See also Kofi A. Annan, Speech to the UN General Assembly, 23 September 2003, available at .
41. The concern is with the violation of human rights, for instance, the violation of rights found in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, (1966), 999 U. N. T. S. 171, and not with the violations of international humanitarian law in the case of armed conflict as in the 1949 Geneva Convention IV (civilians)
42. (1950), 75 U. N. T. S. 287, or in cases of humanitarian assistance in the case of natural disasters or epidemics.
43. See in general P. Malanczuk, Humanitarian Intervention and the Legitimacy of the Use of Force (1993);
44. K. Tomasevsky, Responding to Human Rights Violations 1946-1999 (2000);
45. S. Hoffmann, The Ethics and Politics of Humanitarian Intervention (1996);
46. Don Hubert and Rob McRae, Human Security and the New Diplomacy (2002);
47. S. D. Murphy, Humanitarian Intervention (1996);
48. M. S. Klimow, Moral Versus Practical: The Future of US Armed Intervention (1996);
49. O. Corten and P. Klein, Droit d'ingérance ou obligation de réaction'? (1992);
50. C. Scott, "Interpreting Intervention" (2001) 39 Can. Y. B. Int. L. 333;
51. P. Garigue, "Intervention-Sanction and 'droit d'ingérence' in International Humanitarian Law" (1993) 48 Int. J. 668;
52. and M. Toufayan, "Deployment of Troops to Prevent Impending Genocide: A Contemporary Assessment of the UN Security Council's Powers" (2002) 40 Can. Y. B. Int. L. 195.
53. SC Resolution 688, UN Doc. S/RES/688 (5 April 1991)
54. 30 I. L. M. 858.
55. See also East Timor, SC Resolution 1264, UN Doc. S/RES/1264 (15 September 1999);
56. Somalia, SC Resolution 794, UN Doc. S/INF/48 (3 December 1992) (partial armed intervention).
57. Annual Report on the Work of the United Nations, Doc. A/46/1, GADR 46th Sess., Suppl. N0.1, ST/JPDI/1 168.
58. See also Kofi A. Annan, "Two Concepts of Sovereignty", The Economist, 18 September 1999.
59. See also Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (free elections), UN Doc. A/810 (1948).
60. and Military Activities in Nicaragua, supra note 31 at paras. 206 and 20g.
61. See, for example, Military Activities in Nicaragua, supra note 31 at paras. 202-9.
62. Uniting for Peace Resolution, 1951, GARes. 377 (V) UN GAOR, 5th Sess., Supp. No. 20, UN Doc. A/1775 at 10
63. Military Activities in Nicaragua, supra note 31.
64. Caroline case, supra note 30.
65. Case Concerning Questions of Interpretation and Application of the 1917 Montreal Convention Arising from the Aerial Incident at Lockerbie (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya v. United Kingdom and Libyan Arab Jamhiriya v. United States of America) (preliminary objections), (1998), 37 I. L. M. 587 at paras. 46-50.
66. Advisory Opinion with Respect to Namibia, [1971] I. C. J. Rep. 16, at 45.
67. International Development Research Centre, The Responsibility to Protect, December 2001, available at at foreword [Responsibility toProtect].
68. Responsibility to Protect, supra note 55 at para. 6.36.
69. More Secure World, supra note 34 at para. 203.
70. See in general J. Welsh, At Home in the World, Canada's Global Vision for the Twenty-First Century (2004).
71. See, for example, UN Economic and Social Council Resolution 1235 (XLII), 6 June 1967.
72. As in the case of the Darfur region of Sudan. See SC Resolution 1564, UN Doc. S/RES/1564 (18 September 2004) at para. 12;
73. and Report of the International Commission of Inquiry onDarfur to the Secretary General, 27 January 2005
74. and Report of the Secretary General, 31 January 2005, Doc. S/2005/57.
75. Responsibility to Protect, supra note 55.
76. More Secure World, supra note 34.
77. See Z. Brzezinski, The Choice, Global Domination or Global Leadership (2004).
78. With respect to unilateralism versus multilateralism, see R. Kagan, Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order (vintage ed., 2003-4) at 144.
79. Quoted in More Secure World, supra note 34 at Part 4