Humanitarian Intervention: Is There a Need for a Legal Reappraisal?

The breakdown of Yugoslavia and the ensuing war has called into question many formerly uncontested principles of international law. Perhaps the most far-reaching challenge to the traditional international law doctrine was brought about by the NATO intervention in Kosovo. Many authors cite this event as a proof that a new right to humanitarian intervention is evolving or has already come into being. The aim of this article is to show that conventional positions have been abandoned far too easily in this context. Not only is this change of position unwarranted on legal grounds but it is also counterproductive on the factual level. Despite all its shortcomings the prohibition of the use of force may constitute in the end a better protection for the weak than its abandonment prompted by an over-enthusiastic belief in the virtues of the intervenor.