Humanitarian Intervention and the Recasting of International Law

Abstract

International law since the Second World War has been built upon a respect for the sovereignty of nation-states. States, as the legal subjects of international law, have been treated as equal under international law regardless of economic and social power. This principle of sovereign equality was codified in international law by the United Nations’ Charter that provides at Article 2(1): ‘The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members.’ However, since 1990 the sovereign equality of nation-states has been challenged and international law is being recast in the face of a humanitarian agenda which asserts that the rights of individuals should take priority over the rights of state sovereignty. From the imposition of no-fly zones over Iraq in 1991 to the bombing campaign over Kosovo in 1999, international actions which have undermined state sovereignty have been justified on a humanitarian basis.