Is Unilateral Humanitarian Intervention Compatible with the U.N. Charter?

Authors

Petr Valek, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic

Abstract

The main topic of this Note is the compatibility of unilateral humanitarian intervention with Article 2(4) of the U.N. Charter (the Charter). Through its interpretation, the author will attempt to discover whether the Grotian idea of unilateral humanitarian intervention can survive in the environment of contemporary international law without its "just war appendix." This Note will separate this idea from its "just war justification" and approach the question of the compatibility of such intervention with the Charter as a legal positivist. In the interpretation of Article 2(4) of the Charter, this Note will try to avoid moral principles. Instead, it will rely on the methods described by the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (Vienna Convention), i.e., the textual, systematic, and teleological interpretations, subsequent agreements, subsequent practice, international law, and finally, the travaux préparatoires. At the same time, this Note will not leave out the current trends in international law.

Recommended Citation

Petr Valek, Is Unilateral Humanitarian Intervention Compatible with the U.N. Charter?, 26 Mich. J. Int'l L. 1223 (2005).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjil/vol26/iss4/6