Humanitarian Intervention After Kosovo: Emergent Norm, Moral Duty or the Coming Anarchy? 1

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In March I999 the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) justified the use of force against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) on the grounds that it was necessary to avert an impending humanitarian catastrophe. This action was so controversial because it was the first time since the founding of the United Nations (UN) that a group of states, acting without explicit Security Council authority, defended a breach of the sovereignty rule primarily on humanitarian grounds.2 The international reaction to NATO's intervention has been mixed: on the one hand, it has been welcomed by those who argue that