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Legal Restraints On Security Council Military Enforcement Action, Judith G. Gardam

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article considers an issue that, given its importance for the protection of combatants and civilians in armed conflict, has not attracted the attention it warrants: namely, the extent to which legal restraints derived from the ius in bello and the ius ad bellum apply to the Security Council when it is taking military enforcement action under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter. Although a position not free from controversy, the recent practice of the Security Council in "authorizing" States to use force to restore international peace and security is treated as military enforcement action under Chapter VII of …

The Place Of Law In Collective Security, Martti Koskenniemi

Michigan Journal of International Law

In this article the author wants to examine the place of law in our thinking about and sometimes participation in decision-making regarding international security. After the end of the Cold War, and particularly since the United Nations' reaction to Iraq's occupation of Kuwait in 1990-91, an academic debate concerning the possibility of collective security has arisen anew. The intention is not to take a definite view in that controversy. Instead, the author shall suggest that this debate has been framed so as to obscure the role of normative considerations, including law, in the production or construction of collective security. A …

Caught Between Traditions: The Security Council In Philosophical Conundrum, David P. Fidler

Michigan Journal of International Law

In Part I of this article, I provide a discussion about the use of traditions of thought in international relations. Part II begins by briefly examining the fundamental purpose of the Security Council – the maintenance of international peace, and security. I then analyze the philosophical origins of the idea of maintaining international peace and security through an international organization to demonstrate how liberal thought on international relations came to incorporate this idea. In this analysis, I will demonstrate that liberal thought on the appropriateness of relying on international organizations to maintain peace and security is not unified and that …

Collective Humanitarian Intervention, Fernando R. Tesón

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article discusses collective intervention authorized by the Security Council, with a special emphasis on the concept of exclusive domestic jurisdiction. Part I first examines the different meanings of the notoriously ambiguous word "intervention." Because the legitimacy of collective intervention will depend in part on whether or not the matter falls within the domestic jurisdiction of the target state, Part II will then discuss contemporary views of domestic jurisdiction. Finally, Parts III and IV discuss collective humanitarian intervention under the principles of the U.N. Charter and examine the practice of the Security Council since the end of the Cold War. …

The Role Of The United Nations Security Council In African Peace Management: Some Porposals, A. Peter Mutharika

Michigan Journal of International Law

The United Nations global peace management scheme is based on certain fundamental assumptions that require serious reexamination as we enter the twenty-first century. Fundamental to the 1945 vision of global peace management was the prevention of a third world war through collective action by the great powers. Structurally, this was to be achieved by a system of great power governance through the mechanism of the Security Council. While the Charter confers on the Security Council "primary responsibility" for the maintenance of international peace and security, executive decision-making is reserved for the great powers through permanent membership and the veto power. …

The "Privatization" Of Security Council Enforcement Action: A Threat To Multilateralism, John Quigley

Michigan Journal of International Law

In-the post-Cold War period, the United Nations Security Council has emerged from a side show of international politics to center stage. It has acted to repel aggression, to promote humanitarian efforts, and to enforce democracy. This flowering of activity holds the potential for achieving concerted international action to remedy situations involving great human misery.

The Politics Of Collective Security, Anne Orford

Michigan Journal of International Law

Part I argues that conventional international legal analyses about Security Council actions do not consider the gender-differentiated effects of those actions. The universality of male interests is taken for granted by international lawyers. The first level of analysis thus involves adding women in; that is, considering the consequences that Security Council actions have had for women in Kuwait, Iraq, Cambodia, Somalia, Mozambique, Bosnia, and the United States. I argue that many women are in fact rendered less secure by actions authorized by the Security Council in the name of collective security. As a result, women must have a voice in …

Lip Service To The Laws Of War: Humanitarian Law And United Nations Armed Forces, Richard D. Glick

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article concludes that the United Nations is bound by the rules of customary international humanitarian law, and occupies a horizontal relationship with the other subjects of IHL that it engages in armed conflict. When U.N. armed forces engage in armed conflict, the Organization qualifies as a "party to armed conflict" within the meaning of IHL, and U.N. troops also fall within the IHL definition of "combatants," rendering the Organization subject to IHL obligations. Continuing U.N. arguments to the contrary either deprive IHL definitions of their determinacy or regress to a claim of undeserved special status for Charter norms and …

The United Nations Response To The Crisis Of Landmines In The Developing World, Kenneth Anderson

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Introduction. Although the United Nations has frequently been criticized for responding too slowly to problems in the developing world, it can take pride in having been among the first to recognize the crisis of antipersonnel landmines. Ever since the issue was first raised in 1992 by the International Committee of the Red Cross, key actors at the United Nations-including the Secretary General and other senior executives in the departments of Peacekeeping, Humanitarian Affairs, the High Commissioner on Refugees, and UNICEF-have been forthright on the need to take action against this problem.' The brief but specific mention of landmines in the …

A Memorial For Bosnia: Framework Of Legal Arguments Concerning The Lawfulness Of The Maintenance Of The United Nations Security Council's Arms Embargo On Bosnia And Herzegovina, Craig Scott, Abid Qureshi, Jasminka Kalajdzic, Francis Chang, Paul Michell, Peter Copeland

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Memorial seeks to present a framework of legal arguments with respect to the validity and legal effects of an arms embargo imposed by United Nations Security Council Resolution 713 in September 1991 on the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Yugoslavia), before its dissolution, and since treated as being in force with respect to the new states that have succeeded Yugoslavia. More particularly, the Memorial addresses the legality of maintaining (or, at least, having maintained during the crucial time period) the arms embargo in force, either de jure or de facto, against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnia) …

United Nations Intervention In Internal Conflicts: Iraq, Somalia, And Beyond, Ruth Gordon

Michigan Journal of International Law

Part I of this article will examine the concept of domestic jurisdiction. One of the principal purposes of the United Nations is the maintenance of international peace and security, which in 1946 was thought to essentially entail maintaining the peace between nation States. Internal power struggles and conflicts were thought to be within the jurisdiction of the State where they took place, unless they posed a rather substantial "threat" to the peace. Thus, the drafters of the U.N. Charter made sharp distinctions between internal and international conflicts. For instance, the Charter generally proscribes international, but not domestic, conflict, and the …

The Theory And Practice Of Regional Organization Intervention In Civil Wars, Christopher J. Borgen

Faculty Publications

The United Nations' reach in peacekeeping is fast outdistancing its grasp. Spread across seventeen countries, the U.N.’s over 80,000 civilian and military personnel monitor cease-fires, protect aid convoys, and separate warring parties. As the U.N. extends its arms, financial resources seem to slip through its fingers like grains of sand. In short, the U.N. lacks the resources to continue increasing its peacekeeping responsibilities.

In An Agenda for Peace (Agenda), Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali proposes that part of the solution to the economic problems of the U.N. lies in reconsidering how regional organizations interact with the U.N., a suggestion which revisits a …

The Myth That Israel's Presence In Judea And Samaria Is Comparable To Iraq's Presence In Kuwait, Malvina Halberstam

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Command And Control Of United Nations Forces In The Era Of "Peace Enforcement", James W. Houck

Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores how concerns regarding the United Nations' authority to make political, strategic, and operational decisions that comprise the right to command and control UN forces might be reconciled within the framework of the United Nations Charter to create a contemporary and more enduring regime for the command and control of United Nations forces. As Part II demonstrates, command and control issues are not new to the United Nations; indeed, in 1945 the signatories to the United Nations Charter created a model for the command and control of United Nations forces.

While the cold war ensured that this model …

The Commander In Chief And United Nations Charter Article 43: A Case Of Irreconcilable Differences?, James W. Houck

Faculty Scholarship

Part II of this paper provides an overview of the U.N. Charter's framework for collective security, with a particular focus on the Charter's provision for the. creation, command, and control of U.N. military forces. During the Cold War, this framework fell into desuetude, and U.N. forces that participated in enforcement actions, such as Korea and Iraq, as well as peacekeeping operations, were created in ad hoc fashion outside the Charter's framework. Part III examines this development and considers how the conclusion of an Article 43 agreement might alter the President's authority under international law to pursue U.S. interests while participating …

Article 51: Limits On Self-Defense?, Thomas K. Plofchan Jr.

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article's two-pronged analysis has three distinct parts. Part I lays out the controversy of Article 51 interpretation as applied to the recent Gulf Crisis. Part II examines the legal guidance for interpreting the U.N. Charter, the Charter's travaux preparatoires, and specifically the work of the committees and subcommittees responsible for drafting and amending articles that fully incorporate the right of self-defense into the Charter. This Part develops conclusions on Article 51 that may be applied to the context of the recent Gulf Crisis. This Part also contrasts the Article 51 right of collective self-defense with the right of …

Oil In The Persian Gulf War: Legal Appraisal Of An Environmental Warfare., Margaret T. Okorodudu-Fubara

St. Mary's Law Journal

Oil, modern history’s most “powerful” natural economic resource stood at the epicenter of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and became the latest unconventional weapon of warfare. The objective of this Article is to assess the legal implications of this recent environmental warfare involving the “oil weapon,” the first of its kind in recorded history. The experiences from national and international wars demonstrate one sure victim of wars, even barring human losses, is the environment. The delicacy of mankind’s planetary ecosystem necessitates urgency addressed to protecting the environment in the international struggle for arms control and disarmament agreement. This Article indicates …

After The Gulf War: Prosecuting Iraqi Crimes Under The Rule Of Law, Louis R. Beres

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In this Article, Professor Beres proposes that Iraqi crimes committed during the Gulf War should be prosecuted under international law. He suggests that the United States should take the lead in this prosecution, utilizing a Nuremberg-style trial.

The Article first discusses history of the antigenocide regime in the international arena. The criminalization of genocide has been built upon the norms of international custom, natural law principles, and generally-accepted principles of law recognized by civilized nations. Moreover, evidence of this regime may be found in the Genocide Convention, the United Nations Charter, and other treaties and conventions.

Professor Beres next examines …

The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, L C. Green

Dalhousie Law Journal

Until comparatively recently (see, eg., The Other Nuremberg by Arnold C. Brackman, 1987) there has been little written in western countries concerning the International Military Tribunal for the Far East - the Tokyo Tribunal - when compared with its "sister" Tribunal at Nuremberg. The compilation of Principles drawn up by the United Nations is known as the Nuremberg Principles regardless of the fact that the same principles were applied in Tokyo. In 1983, to coincide with the first Japanese showing of the film The Tokyo Trial premiered in New York two years later, an International Symposium on the Trial was …

The United States, The United Nations, And Micronesia: Questions Of Procedure, Substance, And Faith, Harry G. Prince

Michigan Journal of International Law

This study first considers the procedural requirements for proper termination and concludes that Security Council approval is required. Second, this writing identifies the major issues that should be considered if the proposed termination of the Trusteeship Agreement for Micronesia is subjected to Security Council review. Two basic concerns should be the propriety of the division of the Trust Territory into four separate entities and the legitimacy of the agreements between the new governments and the United States for continuing relations as either commonwealth or freely associated states. The history of and practice under the trusteeship system indicate that the particular …

Law And Alternative Security, Burns H. Weston

Michigan Journal of International Law

Rightly or wrongly, nuclear weapons are regarded, in their threat role at least, as effective guardians of national security. Yet nothing is more menacing to the survival of our planet than the credibly communicated threat to use nuclear weapons if and when sufficiently provoked. Ergo, to escape the mind-boggling risks posed by nuclear deterrence, thinking about how to ensure world security without relying upon nuclear weapons, either extensively or at all, is as much a political as it is a moral imperative- in truth, a matter of physical survival. Without an effective alternative to nuclear deterrence, there is no …

The United Nations And The Enforcement Of Peace, Eric Stein

Michigan Journal of International Law

This essay is a revised version of an address given at a symposium held in the fall of 1986 in Heidelberg, Federal Republic of Germany, in commemoration of the 600th anniversary of the Heidelberg University. By one of the coincidences that haunt human life, the United Nations is again the topic.

The Israeli Aerial Attack Of June 7, 1981 Upon The Iraqi Nuclear Reactor: Aggression Or Self-Defense?, W. Thomas Mallison, Sally V. Mallison

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

On June 7, 1981, the State of Israel conducted an aerial attack on the Iraqi nuclear reactor known as Tamuz I located near Baghdad. The attack was carried out by F15 and F16 aircraft supplied by the United States. The reactor was damaged severely and three Iraqi civilians and one French technician were killed. On June 8 Israel announced the attack and described it as an act of legitimate self-defense, claiming Iraq planned to construct nuclear weapons. On the same day the Republic of Iraq requested an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council to consider what it described …

Cyprus And The U.N.: A Case For Non-Military Collective Measures, Christina K. Navarro

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Wainhouse: International Peace Observation-A History And Forecast, D. V. Sandifer

Michigan Law Review

A Review of International Peace Observation-a History and Forecast By David W. Wainhouse in association with Bernhard G. Bechhoefer, John C. Dreier, Benjamin Gerig and Harry R. Turkel.

Falk & Mendlovitz: The Strategy Of World Order, Rosalyn Higgins

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Strategy of World Order. 4 vols Edited by Richard A. Falk and Saul H. Mendlovitz

The Law School Looks At Vietnam, W. G. C.

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

On November 7, 1967, while pollsters were busy recording increased popular dissatisfaction with President Johnson's Vietnam policy, the Vanderbilt International Law Society decided to find out what law students at Vanderbilt felt about the War and the legal implications stemming from it.

About two-thirds of the entire student body participated in the poll. A multiple-choice format was used; yet, many students added lengthy comments of their own on the War. Of course, their interest wasn't just academic. As one voter noted, "My answers are affected by the probability that I'll be going to Vietnam...and I don't want to get shot …

The Law-Making Treaties Of The International Telecommunication Union Through Time And In Space, J. Henry Glazer

Michigan Law Review

On the twenty-fifth of June, the Government of the United States of America received an invitation to attend in Russia a conference of plenipotentiaries to consider the revision of an important multilateral convention. Since the conference involved matters which, by American municipal practice, were solely within the competence of private enterprise and not subject to the control of government, the United States at first refused to attend. Russia, however, assured the United States that representatives of private enterprises would be welcome. Relations between these two countries were on such a friendly basis that the United States accepted the invitation extended …

Atoms For Peace: The New International Atomic Energy Agency, Bernhard G. Bechhoefer, Eric Stein

Michigan Law Review

On October 26, 1956 seventy states signed an international agreement described as the Statute of an International Atomic Energy Agency. This signing followed a conference of over a month in which eighty-two states participated. All of the participating states supported the text which resulted from this conference-a truly remarkable result considering that the subject of the conference was atomic energy with its far-reaching international security implications.

International Law-Trusteeship Compared With Mandate, Donald S. Leeper S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The mandate system represented an attempt to cope with the problem of nonself-governing territories as an international responsibility and, for the most part, was an advancement over former methods of treatment. The system was not perfect and its operation pointed up a number of its defects. The framers of the United Nations Charter formulated the trusteeship system to take the place of the mandate system, correcting its defects and adding certain innovations. The purpose of this comment is to present a brief comparison of the two systems and to consider a few of the major problems presented.