The Legality of War (eBook)

Academic Paper from the year 2022 in the subject Law - European and International Law, Intellectual Properties, grade: B, INES Ruhengeri Institute of Applied Science, language: English, abstract: This article examines the legality of war. Its methodology consists in the examination of various legal sources mainly from the nineteenth century to the present day. The conventional law relating to the rules governing wars emerged at the end of the nineteenth century with the Hague conventions on the laws and customs of war of 1899. By those conventions, states undertook, inter alia, to regulate the conduct of warfare. In addition, the recourse to wars was restricted and the principle of pacific settlement of international disputes was asserted. Yet, wars neither stopped nor decreased and the world later experienced the two world wars.
Nowadays, it is widely believed that aggression and proxy wars are prohibited. The mainstream literature argues that such prohibition started after the First World War, especially with the Kellogg- Briand Pact. However, there is little discussion on the evolution of such prohibition. This work solves that issue. In addition, while since immemorial times many states have been engaged in civil wars, the legality of those wars has received little attention from the literature. This article fills such gap. It asserts that international armed conflicts are prohibited and that they are allowed in some circumstances. With regard to the civil wars, they are unlawful under domestic law and seem lawful under international law.