Article contents
THE USE OF FORCE: INTERNATIONAL LAW AFTER IRAQ
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 January 2008
Abstract
Debates surrounding the second Iraq war have prompted a range of commentators to diagnose the death of the law on the use of force, to call for its adaptation to the globalization of threats and the problem of so-called failed States, or to assert the need to defend the UN Charter framework. In this article, we look behind the shrill rhetoric of the post-invasion commentary and invite a sober assessment of the current situation. Our aim is not to evaluate in detail the legality of the Iraq war. Others have done so thoroughly.1 Rather, we are interested in exploring whether we are truly at a turning point for international norms and institutions governing the use of force. If we do confront a ‘fork in the road’, as suggested by Kofi Annan in his address to the UN General Assembly on 23 September 2003,2 what changes to legal institutions and structures are required, and what new claims should we resist?
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © British Institute of International and Comparative Law 2004
References
1 See, eg, Murphy, S ‘Assessing the Legality of Invading Iraq’ (2004) 92 GeorgetownLJ (forthcoming);Google ScholarLowe, V ‘The Iraq Crisis: What Now?’ (2003) 52 ICLQ 859;CrossRefGoogle Scholar and various contributions to ‘Agora: Future Implications of the Iraq Conflict’ (2003) 97 AJIL 553–642.Google Scholar
2 Annan, K, Secretary General's Address to the General Assembly, 23 09 2003 <http://www.un.org/apps>..>Google Scholar
3 UN Office on Drugs and Crime ‘Conventional Terrorist Weapons’ <http://www.unodc.org/unodc/terrorism> (last visited 30 Oct 2003).+(last+visited+30+Oct+2003).>Google Scholar
4 Wedgwood, R ‘The Fall of Saddam Hussein: Security Council Mandates and Preemptive Self-Defense’ (2003) 97 AJIL 576 at 582–3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarSee also National Security Strategy of the United States of America (Sept 2002) <http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss.pdf> at 15 [hereinafter US Security Strategy].+at+15+[hereinafter+US+Security+Strategy].>Google Scholar
5 Hanlon, M ‘Marine Music School a “Soft Target“ for IRA’ Toronto Star 23 09 2003, A3;Google ScholarProkesch, S ‘Britain Says IRA Appears to Be Stepping Up Its Attacks Outside Ulster’ New York Times 3 06 1990, s 1 pt 13.Google Scholar
6 See Stromseth, JE ‘Law and Force After Iraq: A Transitional Moment’ (2003) 97 AJIL 628 at 634.CrossRefGoogle ScholarSee also Slaughter, AM and Burke-White, W ‘An International Constitutional Moment’ (2002) 43 Harvard Intl LJ 1 (reflecting on the implications for the international law on the use of force of the emergence of the new threats posed by non-State actors).Google Scholar
7 Huntington, SPThe Clash of Civilisations and the Remaking of World Order (New YorkSimon & Schuster 1996).Google Scholar
8 See eg Mosi, D ‘Whither the West’ (2003) 82/6 Foreign Affairs 67 (arguing that the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 Nov 1989, marked the end of the ‘old West’ and the beginning of a dissonance between European and American interests);Google ScholarRubenfeld, J ‘The Two World Orders’ (2003) 3 Wilson Quarterly 22 (arguing that two fundamentally different understandings of the international legal order are espoused by Europeans and Americans, respectively).Google Scholar
9 See Ash, T Garton ‘Are You With Us? Are We Against You?’ New York Times 30 05 2003, All.Google Scholar
10 ‘The Shadow Men’ The Economist 26 04 2003, 42.Google Scholar
11 See eg Buchanan, A and Keohane, RO ‘The Preventive Use of Force: A Cosmopolitan Institutional Perspective’ (2004) 18 Ethics & International Affairs 1;CrossRefGoogle ScholarSlaughter, AM ‘Präzisionswaffe Völkerrecht: Die Demokratien müssen sich verbünden—zu einer neuen Kraft innerhalb der UN’ (2003) 28 Die Zeit <http://www.zeit.de/2003/28> (last visited 21 Aug 2003) [hereinafter ‘Präzisionswaffe’].Google Scholar
12 See Franck, TM ‘What Happens Now? The United Nations After Iraq’ (2003) 97 AJ1L 607 at 618.Google Scholar
13 See Bernstein, R ‘Foreign Views of US Darken Since Sept. 11’ New York Times 11 09 2003, Al (cont) A18.Google Scholar
14 See Stromseth, , above n 6, at 632–3 (on the widespread public acceptance of the Charter framework).Google Scholar
15 See, eg, the symposium ‘The Revival of Empire’ (2003) 17 Ethics & Intl Affairs 34.Google Scholar
16 See, eg, Macintyre, D ‘The Iraq Crisis: Mr Cook Has Resigned—But it is Mr Blair Who is Out of Step With Public Opinion’ The Independent 18 03 2003,18;Google Scholar‘Who Speaks for Europe?’ The Economist 8 02 2003, 48.Google Scholar
17 Huntington, , above n 7.Google Scholar
18 Kagan, R ‘Power and Weakness’ (2002) 113 Policy Review 3.Google Scholar
19 Nye, J ‘The New Rome Meets the New Barbarians: How America Should Wield Its Power’ The Economist 23 03 2002, 24.Google Scholar
20 Wendt, A ‘Anarchy is What States Make of it: The Social Construction of Power Politics’ (1992) 46 Intl Organization 391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21 See, eg, Binnendijk, H and Kugler, R ‘Securing the Homeland: Sound Vision, Unfinished Business: The Quadrennial Defense Review Report 2001’ (2002) 26 Fletcher Forum of World Affairs 123 at 135–6.Google Scholar
22 US Department of Defense, ‘Quadrennial Defense Review Report: 30 September 2001’ <http://www.defensehnk.mil/pubs/qdr2001.pdf> (1 12 2003) at 21.+(1+12+2003)+at+21.>Google Scholar
23 Waldman, A and Filkins, D ‘2 US Fronts: Quick Wars, but Bloody Peace’ New York Times 19 11 2003, Al.Google Scholar
24 Adler, E, remarks at a workshop on the use of force at the University of Toronto (Toronto, 12 Sept 2003) (notes on file with the authors). More specifically, one could argue that recent US interventions show that material power is extremely successful when it comes to destructive objectives—the State in Iraq and Afghanistan was quickly destroyed without particularly significant costs, at least in terms of US lives. When, however, the policy aims of a State using force extend beyond destruction towards the construction of new stable patterns of social interaction, material power is markedly less ‘powerful’. We thank Sean Rehaag for articulating this point.Google Scholar
25 See, eg, Roach, KSeptember 11: Consequences for Canada (Montreal McGill-Queen's University Press 2003) at 196–200.Google Scholar
26 See Toope, SJ ‘Human Rights and the Use of Force After September 11th, 2001’ in Nardin, T and Sherman, D (eds) 9/11: Reconstructions (BloomingtonUniversity of Indiana Press 2004) (forthcoming).Google Scholar
27 See, eg, Glennon, M ‘The New Interventionism: The Search for Just International Law’ (1999) 78/3 Foreign Affairs 2 at 4;Google ScholarReisman, WM ‘In Defense of World Public Order’ (2001) 95 AJ1L 833;Google ScholarArend, AC ‘International Law and the Preemptive Use of Military Force’ (2003) 26 Washington Quarterly 89 at 97–9;CrossRefGoogle ScholarSofaer, AD ‘On the Necessity of Pre-emption’ (2003) 14 European Intl LJ 209;CrossRefGoogle ScholarWedgwood, , above n 4 at 582–4.Google Scholar
28 See, eg, Arend, ibid, at 99–101; Glennon, MJ ‘Why the Security Council Failed’ (2003) 82/3 Foreign Affairs 16;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Wedgwood, ibid at 576–82.
29 Arguments to this effect are advanced from a range of different political and theoretical vantage points.Google Scholar See, eg, Wedgwood, ibid; Slaughter, , Präzisionswaffe, above n 11; Buchanan and Keohane, above n 11. See also US Security Strategy, above n 4, at 14. For a discussion, see below, nn 100–11 and accompanying text.Google Scholar
30 See Lowe, , above n 1 at 860–2.Google Scholar
31 See also ibid at 864; O'Connell, ME ‘Releasing the Dogs of War, Review of Christine Gray's International Law and the Use of Force’ (2003) 97 AJIL 446.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
32 Brunnée, J and Toope, SJ ‘International Law and Constructivism: Elements of an Interactional Theory of International Law’ (2000) 39 Columbia J of Transnational L 19 [hereinafter ‘Interactional Theory’];Google ScholarBrunnée, J and Toope, SJ ‘Persuasion and Enforcement: Explaining Compliance with International Law’ (2002) 13 Finnish Ybk Intl L 1 (forthcoming).Google Scholar
33 See Kritsiotis, D ‘Arguments of Mass Confusion’ (2004) 15 European J Intl L 233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
34 See Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua, (Nicaragua v United States of America) (Merits), ICJ Reports (1986) 14 at 70–1 [hereinafter Nicaragua] (where the Court carefully distinguishes the legal justification offered by the United States from other motives it may have had for its activities). For a detailed discussion, see Kritsiotis, ibid.
35 Postema, GJ ‘Implicit Law’ (1994) 13 L & Philosophy 361; Lowe, above n 1 at 861–4 (speaking of ‘coherence’ of a given claim with existing law).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
36 Johnstone, I ‘Security Council Deliberations: The Power of the Better Argument’ (2003) 12 European J Intl L 437 at 448–50, 475–6.Google Scholar
37 See, eg, Byers, M ‘Preemptive Self-defense: Hegemony, Equality and Strategies of Legal Change’ (2003) 11/2 J of Political Philosophy 171 at 180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
38 The Caroline (1837), 2 Moore Digest of Intl L 409.Google ScholarAnd see Jennings, RY ‘The Caroline and McLeod Cases’ (1938) 32 AJIL 82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
39 See also Lowe, , above n 1 at 865.Google Scholar
40 For an even more pointed assessment, see Franck, , above n 12 at 620 (referring to the preemptive strike doctrine as ‘not system transformation but system abrogation’).Google Scholar
41 See generally Bush, GW, Address to the UN General Assembly, 23 Sept 2003 <http://www.whitehouse.gov>;;>Google ScholarBlair, T ‘PM thanks troops in Iraq’ 29 May 2003 <http://www.number-10.gov.uk>..>Google Scholar
42 See Lowe, , above n 1 at 861.Google Scholar
43 Ibid at 864 (‘It is not clear to me that there is a need for any new conceptual framework to cope with the “war on terrorism“’); Stromseth, , above n 6 at 637 (‘the core rules of the UN Charter…still provide a viable legal framework if the rules are refined to take account of recent experience and emerging security threats’).Google Scholar
44 Taft, WH IV ‘Memorandum: The Legal Basis for Preemption’, 18 Nov 2002 <http://www.cfr.org/publication> [hereinafter ‘Memorandum’].+[hereinafter+‘Memorandum’].>Google Scholar But see also Taft, WH IV and Buchwald, TF ‘Preemption, Iraq, and International Law’ (2003) 97 AJIL 557 (offering a more openended conception of the legality of pre-emptive strikes).Google Scholar
45 US Security Strategy, above n 4 at 13–16.Google Scholar
46 Taft, , Memorandum, above n 4 at 1.Google Scholar
47 Ibid.
48 Ibid at 3. For a good discussion of the continuing pertinence of the requirements of imminence and proportionality, see Sapiro, M ‘The Shifting Sands of Preemptive Self-Defense’ (2003) 97 AJIL 599 at 603–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
49 See Kritsiotis, , above n 33 at 246–53 (offering a detailed distinction of the US administration's public rhetoric and its official legal justification of the Iraq intervention).Google Scholar
50 On the US position, see Permanent Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations (JD Negroponte) ‘Letter to the President of the United Nations Security Council’ 20 Mar 2003, UN Doc S/2003/351. The letter relies primarily on Security Council authorization and makes only passing reference to self-defence, suggesting vaguely that the actions of coalition forces were ‘necessary steps to defend the United States and the international community from the threat posed by Iraq and to restore international peace and security in the area’.Google Scholar
51 See Slevin, P ‘Legality of War Is A Matter of Debate—Many Scholars Doubt Assertion by Bush’ Washington Post 18 03 2003, A16.Google Scholar
52 See Travalio, G and Altenburg, J ‘State Responsibility for Sponsorship of Terrorist and Insurgent Groups: Terrorism, State Responsibility and the Use of Military Force’ (2003) 4 Chicago J Intl L 97 at 118;Google ScholarBrown, D ‘Use of Force Against Terrorism After September 1 lth: State Responsibility, Self-Defense and Other Responses’ (2003) 11 Cardozo J Intl & Comparative L 1, at 43.Google Scholar
53 See Ratner, SR, Comments on a discussion paper prepared for a workshop on the use of force at the University of Toronto (Toronto, 12 Sept 2003) (notes on file with authors).Google Scholar
54 Nicaragua, above n 34.Google Scholar
55 But see Jinks, D ‘State Responsibility for the Acts of Private Armed Groups’ (2003) 4 Chicago J Intl L 83, at 91–4 (warning against the implications of relaxing relevant secondary rules on State responsibility).Google Scholar
56 Ratner, SR ‘Jus ad Bellum and Jus in Bello After September 11’ (2002) 96 AJIL 905 at 908–10; Travalio and Altenburg, above n 52 at 102–11;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Jinks, ibid at 84–90.
57 The Corfu Channel case (Merits), ICJ Reports (1949) 4, at 22–3; International Law Commission, Draft Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts (adopted at the 53rd session, Nov 2001) Arts 49, 50. See generally Travalio and Altenburg op cit.Google Scholar
58 See ibid at 111–13. States without any effective government may be an exception. In such cases of ‘State failure’, the simple presence of terrorists may be enough to justify a carefully targeted armed response, addressed at the terrorists alone. This approach would, of course, amount to a limited extension of self-defence to resist the armed attacks or imminent attacks of non-State actors, but only in the rare situations where no State authority exists.
59 See ibid at 112–14.
60 Ibid at 112.
61 Nicaragua, above n 34 at [263].Google Scholar
62 See Farer, T ‘The Prospect for International Law and Order in the Wake of Iraq’ (2003) 97 AJ1L 621 at 628;Google ScholarReisman, WM ‘Assessing Claims to Revise the Laws of War’ (2003) 97 AJIL 82 at 89–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
63 See Franck, , above n 12 at 616; Lowe, above n 1 at 867.Google Scholar
64 See United Nations Charter, Arts 2(1) and 27;Google ScholarBowett, DWThe Law of International Institutions (4th ednLondonStevens & Sons 1982), at 24, 26, and 33–42;Google ScholarKirgis, FL Jr ‘The United Nations at Fifty: The Security Council's First Fifty Years’ (1995) 89 AJIL 506 at 506–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
65 See Roberts, A and Kingsbury, B ‘The UN's Roles in International Society’ in Roberts, A and Kingsbury, B (eds) United Nations, Divided World (New YorkOxford University Press 1993) 1 at 57.Google Scholar
66 See Barnett, M ‘Bringing in the new world order: liberalism, legitimacy, and the United Nations’ (1997) 49/4 World Politics 526 at 539–43 (reviewing different conceptions of the interplay between procedural and substantive legitimacy of UN action). And see, generally, Brunnée and Toope ‘Interactional Theory’ above n 32 at 56–7 (on the pervasive interaction between procedural and substantive legitimacy).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
67 See Paulus, AL ‘Antimonies of Power and Law: A Comment on Robert Kagan’ (2003) 4/9 German LJ (online ed) at [16–18].Google ScholarSee also Paulus, AL ‘The War against Iraq and the Future of International Law: Hegemony or Pluralism?’ (2004) 24 Mich J Int'l L (forthcoming).Google Scholar
68 See Johnstone, , above n 36 at 454.Google Scholar
69 See ibid at 452–3 (on the interplay between political and legal factors in Security Council decision-making).
70 See, eg, Hurd, I ‘Legitimacy, Power, and the Symbolic Life of the UN Security Council’ (2002) 8 Global Governance 35.Google Scholar
71 See Barnett, , above n 66 at 541–2.Google Scholar
72 See Franck, , above n 12 at 616; Lowe, above n 1 at 867; Johnstone, above n 36 at 478.Google Scholar
73 For a detailed discussion, see Barnett, MEyewitness to a Genocide: The United Nations and Rwanda (IthacaCornell University Press 2002).Google Scholar
74 On Security Council reform see generally, Kirgis, Jr, above n 64;Google ScholarFidler, DP ‘Caught Between Traditions: The Security Council in Philosophical Conundrum’ (1996) 17 Michigan J Intl L 411;Google ScholarMalone, DM ‘The Security Council in the Post-Cold War Era: A Study in the Creative Interpretation of the UN Charter’ (2003) 35 New York U J Intl L 487.Google Scholar
75 See Annan, , above n 2. And see UN Press Release SG/A/857, ‘Secretary General Names High-Level Panel to Study Global Security Threats, and Recommend Necessary Changes’ 4 Nov 2003.Google Scholar
76 See Malone, , above n 74 at 514 and 516.Google Scholar
77 See Barnett, , above n 66 at 540–1.Google Scholar
78 It might be objected that NATO's intervention in Kosovo is an example where a selfappointed coalition achieved a degree of legitimacy. However, the Kosovo intervention can be distinguished from the invasion of Iraq on a number of counts. First, in Kosovo there was credible evidence of actions amounting to a continuing, even escalating, genocide. Secondly, the inability of the Security Council to act resulted from the threatened veto of a single State, and not from a broader resistance to the proposed use of force. The reasons for that threatened veto are complex, and cannot be considered here. Thirdly, the NATO intervention took place after an extended and intense multilateral effort to broker a peaceful settlement. See also Farer, above n 62 at 625–6.Google Scholar
79 See Slaughter, , Präzisionswaffe, above n 11; AM Slaughter ‘Notes from the President: A Fork in the Road’ (2003) American Society of Intl L Newsletter (Sept/Oct) 1 at 4 (suggesting a ‘caucus of democracies‘ or other ‘alternative fora of discussion in the UN, and perhaps ultimately of legitimation for action taken by some sub-set of UN actors’); and Buchanan and Keohane, above n 11 at 17–18, 33 (on the need to design institutions governing the use of force so as to ensure ‘moral reliability,’ and suggesting that one option would be the creation of a ‘rulegoverned, treaty-based, liberal democratic coalition whose functions would include the authorization of preventive force’).Google Scholar
80 See Basler, JA ‘Keep Your Friends Close, and Your Enemies…Iraq: A Case Study of the Expulsion Provision of the United Nations Charter’ (2003) 9 New England J Intl & Comparative L 259.Google Scholar
81 For a recent review of the debates surrounding humanitarian intervention, see eg, Wheeler, NSaving Strangers: Humanitarian Intervention in International Society (OxfordOUP 2002);CrossRefGoogle ScholarFranck, TMRecourse to Force: State Action Against Threats and Armed Attacks (New YorkCambridge University Press 2002) at 135–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
82 See Stein, JG ‘Lies, Accountability and Responsibility: The Great War Debate’ (forthcoming).Google Scholar
83 See above n 75 (and accompanying text).Google Scholar
84 See also Falk, RA ‘What Future for the UN Charter System of War Prevention?’ (2003) 97 AJ1L 590 at 597.Google Scholar
85 See Toope, SJ ‘Does International Law Impose a Duty upon the United Nations to Prevent Genocide?’ (2000) 46 McGill LJ 187.Google Scholar
86 See Reisman, WM ‘Hollow Victory: Humanitarian Intervention and Protection of Minorities’ (1997) 91 American Society of Intl L Proceedings 431.Google Scholar
87 See Barnett, , above n 73 at 34–9.Google Scholar
88 International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty [ICISS] The Responsibility to Protect, Dec 2001 <http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/iciss-ciise/report-en.asp>, at 18.,+at+18.>Google ScholarSee also Evans, G ‘The Responsibility to Protect’ (2002) 81 Foreign Affairs 99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
89 ICISS, ibid at XI.
90 Ibid at 19–31. See also Tanguy, J ‘Redefining Sovereignty and Intervention’ (2003) 17/1 Ethics & International Affairs 141 at 144 (describing the ICISS approach as a ‘responsibility continuum’ that encompasses responsibilities to prevent, to react and to rebuild).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
91 ICISS, ibid at 31.
92 Ibid at XII.
93 Ibid at XII, 32.
94 Ibid at XII, 35–7.
95 Ibid at XII, 47–55. However, the ICISS report also reminds the Security Council that ‘if it fails to discharge its responsibility to protect in conscience-shocking situations crying out for action, concerned states may not rule out other means to meet the gravity and urgency of that situation’, ibid at XIII.
96 Ibid at XIII, 51. As Tanguy, above n 90 at 145 points out, while this proposal was guided by the need for political buy-in, it does not suggest how the international responsibility to protect might be exercised vis-à-vis the Chechens or Tibetans, to take but two contemporary examples.
97 See Franck, TRecourse to Force: State Action Against Threats and Armed Attacks (CambridgeCUP 2002) at 171–2 (commenting on the use of force by States without Security Council authorization).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
98 See Brunnée, J ‘On the Legality of the Use of Force against Iraq’ (2003) 59/4 Behind the Headlines 1 at 3.Google Scholar
99 See President Bush, GW, Radio Address, 5 Apr 2003 <http://www.whitehouse.gov> (‘Village by village, city by city, liberation is coming. The people of Iraq have my pledge: Our fighting forces will press on until their oppressors are gone and their whole country is free.’).+(‘Village+by+village,+city+by+city,+liberation+is+coming.+The+people+of+Iraq+have+my+pledge:+Our+fighting+forces+will+press+on+until+their+oppressors+are+gone+and+their+whole+country+is+free.’).>Google Scholar
100 See above n 29 (and accompanying text).Google Scholar
101 Feinstein, L and Slaughter, AM ‘A Duty to Prevent’ (2004) 83/1 Foreign Affairs 136 at 137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
102 Ibid at 142.
103 Ibid at 137.
104 Ibid at 138.
105 Ibid at 145–6.
106 Feinstein and Slaughter do outline a series of precautionary principles, but they largely address the extent of allowable force, rather than providing limits on the initial triggering: ‘Force must be exerted on the smallest scale, for the shortest time, and at the lowest intensity necessary to achieve its objective; the objective itself must be reasonably attainable when measured against the likelihood of making matters worse. Finally, force should be governed by fundamental principles of the laws of war…’ ibid at 149.
107 Ibid.
108 Ibid at 142.
109 Ibid at 139.
110 US Security Strategy, above n 1 at 13–14.Google Scholar
111 See Feinstein, and Slaughter, , above n 101 at 136 and 137.Google Scholar
112 See Wheeler, NJ ‘Legitimating Humanitarian Intervention: Principles and Procedures’ (2001) 2 Melbourne J Intl L 301;Google Scholarand Wheeler, NJ ‘The Humanitarian Responsibilities of Sovereignty: Explaining the Development of a New Norm of Military Intervention for Humanitarian Purposes in International Society’ in Welsh, JM (ed) Humanitarian Intervention and International Relations (OxfordOUP 2003) 30 at 47.Google Scholar
113 Franck, , above n 12 at 610; ‘The Shadow Men’, above n 10.Google Scholar
114 See Price, R, Comments on a discussion paper prepared for a workshop on the use of force at the University of Toronto (Toronto, 12 Sept 2003) (notes on file with authors).Google Scholar
115 See generally, Toope, SJ ‘Powerful but Unpersuasive? The Role of the United States in the Evolution of Customary Law’, in Byers, M and Nolte, G (eds) United States Hegemony and the Foundations of International Law (CambridgeCUP 2003) 287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 13
- Cited by