Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2004
Publication Information
9 Art & Antiquity L. 323 (2004).
Abstract
To wage war consistently with international law, a national leader must be able to answer at least three questions in the affirmative: Is there a right to resort to force? Is the use of force necessary? If it is necessary, can it be carried out in a way that the cost in terms of human lives, property, and damage to the natural environment will not outweigh the value of resorting to force? If the answer to any of these questions is no, the use of force is unlawful. International lawyers tend to focus on the first question, understandably. Why analyze necessity and proportionality standards if the president or prime minister has no legal right to go to war in the first place? And when there is a right, the analysis of necessity and proportionality typically shifts from the strategic to the tactical level. As a result, there is a tendency to overlook the second and third equally important questions in the decision for war.
Recommended Citation
Mary Ellen O'Connell,
Occupation Failures and the Legality of Armed Conflict: The Case of Iraqi Cultural Property,
9 Art & Antiquity L. 323 (2004)..
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship/1850
Comments
Abstract from introduction.