Law, Morality And Armed Conflict: Striking A Balance On Humanitarian Intervention.

ABSTRACT

‘With all the uprising happening in the world, it is important for states to understand what

exactly happens before they choose to go to war with another state. When the world

divided itself into superpowers, developing, and underdeveloped countries, some states

assumed the role of masters and others of serfs.

Under international law, the right of self-defense gives every state a right to respond to an

armed attack that has already taken place. Whether it also includes a right to use force in

anticipation of an attack that has not yet occurred is contested. If it does, this right is

limited to preemptive use of force. Preventive war is clearly outlawed. The dominant

view among normative theorists, however, is that preemption can be legitimate when it is

a response to immediate threats which pose great harm and the use of force is the last the

relevant question thus, is rather whether preventive war ever can be justified. As will

soon become apparent, this is far more controversial.

The crucial questions for the assessment of the justice of humanitarian intervention thus

seems to be: Do our moral concern extend beyond our family, friends and fellow citizens

to strangers abroad facing grave human rights violations? And do the needs of these

strangers weight as much as the needs of family, friends, and fellow citizens?

I believe so. The debate on communal integrity is mainly about when humanitarian

intervention can be justified, not if. The question should be. under what circumstances

intervention may be justified, rather than if it ever can be justified

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