Public International Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Public International Law - Essay Example Yet the concept of intervention doesn’t take place in abstraction. It is interconnected with the ideals of national sovereignty, international relations and foreign policy, politics and the growth of the international community. These linkages are what inform philosophical thought and public opinion on the subject today2. Those arguing against intervention for human rights say they compromise basic features of state sovereignty since human rights are claims that states cannot do anything they want to however even among legal scholars, notions of sovereignty are coming under pressure to include understandings that would allow or even require intervention by outsiders in cases of humanitarian crisis and gross human rights abuse. Historical, Political and Philosophical Background The state is the fundamental ingredient for political self-determination, thus according to Michael Walzer intervention should be staged only when the basic purposes for which the state was formed have n ot been achieved. The legitimacy of states is limited to waging internal wars that go on without the acts shocking the conscience of mankind3. Of course there are scholars who think that Walzer’s ideas are far too liberal. The fact is that states monopolize defense and security matters within their territory4. The Soviet Republic murdered over 50 million of its citizens in cold blood, in Yugoslavia the numbers were over a million, in Darfur it was in the hundreds of thousands. This sobering statistics justify the assertion that it is the most dangerous threat to civilian existence today. Since the 2001 enactment of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) international law... The paper tells that the state is the fundamental ingredient for political self-determination, thus according to Michael Walzer intervention should be staged only when the basic purposes for which the state was formed have not been achieved. The legitimacy of states is limited to waging internal wars that go on without the acts shocking the conscience of mankind. Of course there are scholars who think that Walzer’s ideas are far too liberal. The fact is that states monopolize defense and security matters within their territory. The Soviet Republic murdered over 50 million of its citizens in cold blood, in Yugoslavia the numbers were over a million, in Darfur it was in the hundreds of thousands. This sobering statistics justify the assertion that it is the most dangerous threat to civilian existence today. Since the 2001 enactment of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) international law policy makers have been trying to develop doctrines of limited sovereignty that aims at givi ng the international community or specific international organizations leeway or duty to undertake intervention in cases of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. The framework of humanitarian intervention isn’t clearly defined. This is amplified by the fact of intervention being not just a moral, but a legal issue as well. The mechanics of humanitarian intervention requires a political body to decide upon and authorize military action and the military force itself that carries out such action.