Peaceful settlement

International law provides a variety of methods for settling disputes peacefully, none of which takes precedence over any other. Nonbinding mechanisms include direct negotiations between the parties and the involvement of third parties through good offices, mediation, inquiry, and conciliation. The involvement of regional and global international organizations has increased dramatically since the end of World War II, as many of their charters contain specific peaceful-settlement mechanisms applicable to disputes between member states. The UN may be utilized at several levels. The secretary-general, for example, may use his good offices to suggest the terms or modalities of a settlement, and the General Assembly may recommend particular solutions or methods to resolve disputes. Similarly, the Security Council may recommend solutions (e.g., its resolution in 1967 regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict) or, if there is a threat to or a breach of international peace and security or an act of aggression, issue binding decisions to impose economic sanctions or to authorize the use of military force (e.g., in Korea in 1950 and in Kuwait in 1990). Regional organizations, such as the Organization of American States and the African Union, also have played active roles in resolving interstate disputes.

Additional methods of binding dispute resolution include arbitration and judicial settlement. Arbitration occurs when the disputing states place their conflict before a binding tribunal. In some cases, the tribunal is required to make a number of decisions involving different claimants (e.g., in the dispute between the United States and Iran arising out of the 1979 Iranian revolution), while in others the tribunal will exercise jurisdiction over a single issue only. In a judicial settlement, a dispute is placed before an existing independent court. The most important and comprehensive of these courts is the ICJ, the successor of the Permanent Court of International Justice, created in 1920. Established by the UN Charter (Article 92) as the UN’s principal judicial organ, the ICJ consists of 15 judges who represent the main forms of civilization and principal legal systems of the world. They are elected by the General Assembly and Security Council for nine-year terms.

The ICJ, whose decisions are binding upon the parties and extremely influential generally, possesses both contentious and advisory jurisdiction. Contentious jurisdiction enables the court to hear cases between states, provided that the states concerned have given their consent. This consent may be signaled through a special agreement, or compromis (French: “compromise”); through a convention that gives the court jurisdiction over matters that include the dispute in question (e.g., the genocide convention); or through the so-called optional clause, in which a state makes a declaration in advance accepting the ICJ’s jurisdiction over matters relating to the dispute. The ICJ has issued rulings in numerous important cases, ranging from the Corfu Channel case (1949), in which Albania was ordered to pay compensation to Britain for the damage caused by Albania’s mining of the channel, to the territorial dispute between Botswana and Namibia (1999), in which the ICJ favoured Botswana’s claim over Sedudu (Kasikili) Island. The ICJ’s advisory jurisdiction enables it to give opinions on legal questions put to it by any body authorized by or acting in accordance with the UN Charter.

Other important international judicial bodies are the European Court of Human Rights, established by the European Convention on Human Rights; the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, created by the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights; and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, set up under the Law of the Sea treaty. The World Trade Organization (WTO), established in 1995 to supervise and liberalize world trade, also has created dispute-settlement mechanisms.

Use of force

The UN Charter prohibits the threat or the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of states or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the Charter; these proscriptions also are part of customary international law. Force may be used by states only for self-defense or pursuant to a UN Security Council decision giving appropriate authorization (e.g., the decision to authorize the use of force against Iraq by the United States and its allies in the Persian Gulf War in 1990–91). The right of self-defense exists in customary international law and permits states to resort to force if there is an instant and overwhelming need to act, but the use of such force must be proportionate to the threat. The right to self-defense is slightly more restricted under Article 51 of the UN Charter, which refers to the “inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs” until the Security Council has taken action. In a series of binding resolutions adopted after the terrorist September 11 attacks in 2001 against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in the United States, the Security Council emphasized that the right to self-defense also applies with regard to international terrorism. Preemptive strikes by countries that reasonably believe that an attack upon them is imminent are controversial but permissible under international law, provided that the criteria of necessity and proportionality are present.

It has been argued that force may be used without prior UN authorization in cases of extreme domestic human rights abuses (e.g., the actions taken by NATO with regard to Kosovo in 1999 or India’s intervention in East Pakistan [now Bangladesh] in 1971). Nonetheless, humanitarian interventions are deeply controversial, because they contradict the principle of nonintervention in the domestic affairs of other states.

The use of force is regulated by the rules and principles of international humanitarian law. The Geneva Conventions (1949) and their additional protocols (1977) deal with, among other topics, prisoners of war, the sick and wounded, war at sea, occupied territories, and the treatment of civilians. In addition, a number of conventions and declarations detail the types of weapons that may not be used in warfare. So-called “dum-dum bullets,” which cause extensive tissue damage, poisonous gases, and chemical weapons are prohibited, and the use of mines has been restricted. Whether the use of nuclear weapons is per se illegal under international law is an issue of some controversy; in any event, the criteria of necessity and proportionality would have to be met.