The Temporal Dimension of Self-Defence: Anticipation, Pre-emption, Prevention and Immediacy

Abstract

In this chapter, the author examines the temporal dimension of self-defense. He also looks at the questions and challenges posed by the national security strategy (NSS) regulating the use of force and in those contexts he/she looks at the relationship between self-defense and the collective security system of the United Nations. With regard to anticipatory self-defense, a right to take anticipatory action has long existed under customary international law. It continues to exist under the Charter. Long-standing State practice spanning over sixty years following adoption of the Charter, together with significant evidence of the opinio juris in the form of the Caroline criteria as a set of guiding principles, support its continual vitality. Keywords: anticipatory self-defense; Caroline criteria; customary international law; defensive armed reprisal; pre-emptive self-defense; preventive self-defense; UN collective security system; United Nations Charter law