Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T14:38:57.459Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Pandora's box?: humanitarian intervention and international law

Review products

First Do No Harm: Humanitarian Intervention and the Destruction of Yugoslavia. By GibbsDavid N., Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2009. 327 pp. ISBN 978-0-82651-644-2 £24.95 paperback

International Law and its Others. Edited by OrfordAnne, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. 436 pp. ISBN 978-0-52112-446-1 £29.99 paperback

Humanitarian Intervention: Confronting the Contradictions. By NewmanMichael, London: Hurst and Co, 2009. 256 pp. ISBN 978-1-85065-974-7 £15.99 paperback

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2011

Aidan Hehir*
Affiliation:
Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Westminster

Extract

The three books reviewed here all address the question of the efficacy of international law and advance concerns about its future trajectory, albeit in contrasting ways. As has been well documented, the role of international law – specifically in the regulation of the use of force – has undergone significant scrutiny in the post-Cold War era. To a much greater extent than during the Cold War, contemporary conflicts and crises are invariably discussed with reference to international law, and the legality of a particular use of force has become a significant factor in assessing its legitimacy; one need only think of the importance placed on the legality of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. This increase in prominence suggests that international law has become more important, and unsurprisingly those used to the discipline's previous role as exotic curio have welcomed this sudden promotion (Robertson, 2000).

Type
Review essays
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bellamy, Alex (2002) Kosovo and International Society. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chesterman, Simon (2003) ‘Hard Cases Make Bad Law’, in Lang, Anthony (ed.) Just Intervention. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 4661.Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam (1999) The New Military Humanism: Lessons from Kosovo. London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Gow, James (1997) Triumph of the Lack of Will: International Diplomacy and the Yugoslav War. New York: Colombia University Press.Google Scholar
Hehir, Aidan (2010) Humanitarian Intervention: An Introduction. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.Google Scholar
Judah, Tim (2000) Kosovo: War and Revenge. Yale: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Mandelbaum, Michael (1999) ‘A Perfect Failure; NATO's War Against Yugoslavia’, Foreign Affairs 78: 28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robertson, Geoffrey (2000) Crimes Against Humanity. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Simpson, Gerry (2004) Great Powers and Outlaw States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, Nigel (2004) ‘The Will and Authority of the Security Council after Iraq’, Leiden Journal of International Law 17: 645–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar