Chapter 3. General Principles Of International Humanitarian And Human Rights Law: A Tool To Overcome The War-And-Peace Divide In International Law

Abstract

This chapter aims to contribute to the critical reflections of the avantgarde refining and developing international law. To that end, it first analyses and categorises the variety of normative gaps identifiable in relation to the maintenance or restoration of international peace and security in contemporary international law. Second, the chapter discusses the relationship between normative gaps and the war-and-peace divide. Then, it assesses the effect of new approaches to maintaining and/or restoring international peace and security on the growth or shrinking of normative gaps. Next, the chapter presents an analysis of the key mechanism that has evolved in this field, namely, transitional authority to maintain and restore international peace and security. Finally, it demonstrates how transitional authority can be prevented from degenerating to the level of arbitrary power-brokering. General principles of international humanitarian and human rights law can prevent the emergence of normative gaps in the exercise of transitional authority. Keywords: human rights law; international humanitarian law; international security; transitional authority; war-and-peace divide