PAIL Institute Publications

PAIL Institute Monograph Series

Humanitarian Intervention: The United Nations in an Evolving World Order

Author(s): Murphy, Sean

Hardcover - 448 pages (1996)
ISBN: 0-8122-3382-4

Price: US $59.95

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About This Publication

The recipient of a Certificate of Merit from the American Society of International Law, Humanitarian Intervention: The United Nations in an Evolving World Order is an extremely timely book. Even as it went to press, governmental and nongovernmental officials were probing the killing fields of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Rwanda, resurrecting memories that shocked the global conscience as nothing has since the Holocaust. These and other icons of late twentieth-century carnage and devastation, together with the post-Cold War revival of the United Nations Security Council, have prompted a clamor for a forceful "humanitarian intervention," both unilateral and multilateral, that is perhaps unparalleled since the birth of the State system. With the spread of market forces and new communication technologies making it each day more difficult to ignore happenings in other parts of the world, it is not unreasonable that there should be an increasing worldwide desire to safeguard against the severe and widespread deprivations of human rights that arise from civil wars and persecutions by autocratic governments. A central challenge for the next century will be how to reconcile existing constraints on the use of force with this increasing desire.

Sean D. Murphy has anticipated this challenge with breadth, depth, acumen and clarity with this publication. Formerly in the Office of the Legal Advisor of the U.S. Department of State, he has done so also with objectivity and sensitivity, capitalizing on his own governmental experience, but sparing from criticism no government, not even his own, when criticism is due. The work constitutes a systemic legal analysis of the doctrine of humanitarian intervention, accounting not only for the history and practice of states relative to humanitarian intervention before and after the adoption of the UN Charter, but also for insights of relevance to the future operations of the United Nations, regional organizations and states acting on their own in this field.

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About The Author(s)

Sean Murphy is Counselor for Legal Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in the Hague, and worked formerly in the Office of the Legal Advisor of the U.S. Department of State.

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Reviews

Rein Mullerson, American Journal of International Law
Although the ideas, norms and cases analyzed in Sean Murphy's book have been dealt with before in numerous other books and articles, there are several things that distinguish this new work on humanitarian intervention. It is not that, together with traditional issues (unilateral humanitarian interventions), the author discusses the latest trends and practices, for this has also been done previously. But there are at least three other aspects of Murphy's book that distinguish it positively from many other works on the topic. First, Murphy seems free of preconceived ideas on the legality (or illegality) of humanitarian intervention; he is neither an advocate nor an opponent of intervention on humanitarian grounds. Second, he does not impose any methodological blinkers on his research; while he briefly discusses differing rule-oriented, policy-oriented and philosophy-oriented approaches to the analysis of humanitarian intervention, Murphy does not single out any of them as the only true approach capable of giving us all the right answers. . . Finally, Murphy has skillfully used some materials that, though in the public domain, are rather difficult to find. . . Murphy's new book makes a significant contribution to the dispute on the future of humanitarian intervention.

Cathleen Hopfe, Denver Journal of International Law and Policy
In a comprehensive study of humanitarian intervention and its relevance to the United Nations, author Sean D. Murphy has provided rare scholarship. Humanitarian Intervention: The United Nations in an Evolving World Order may, indeed, be the only work of its kind on a subject of ever more political, legal and ethical importance. As such, this monograph is an invaluable and timely contribution to the contemporary polemics of humanitarian intervention — particularly in light of the recent horrors of Rawanda and Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the awakening of the international community to seek and demand solutions to mitigate human suffering caused by corrupt or ineffectual governments. . . . In addition to the rich scholarship on the issue of humanitarian intervention and the U.N., international law scholars will be quite happy with Murphy's Bibliography and Appendix of U.N. Documents. The Bibliography is neatly outlined topically, as well as by type of source. One section is even outlined sub-topically by geographical source. . . . Humanitarian Intervention will prove to be a great resource to students and policy-makers alike.

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Availability

Humanitarian Intervention: The United Nations in an Evolving World Order is available from:

University of Pennsylvania Press
P.O. Box 4836
Hampden Station
Baltimore, MD 21211

(800) 445-9880 (toll free)
(410) 516-6998 (fax)
e-mail: custserv@pobox.upenn.edu
website: http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/

Additional order details can be obtained at: http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/order/index.html

It can be ordered online at Amazon.com.

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Table of Contents

	Editor's Foreword				ix
	Preface				xiii
	Acknowledgments				xvii
	Introduction				1
1.	Humanitarian Intervention Prior to the UN Charter				7
	A.	Humanitarian Intervention Defined			8
		1.	"Threat or use of force"		12
		2.	"State, group of state, or international organization"		14
		3.	"Primarily"		14
		4.	"Nationals of a target state"		15
		5.	"Widespread deprivations of internationally recognized human rights"		16
		6.	The Issue of Consent by Local Authorities		18
	B.	Law, Morality, and Political Theory			20
		1.	International Law		20
		2.	Moral Philosophy		27
		3.	Political Theory		29
	C.	Methodology			30
2.	Humanitarian Intervention Prior to the UN Charter				33
	A.	Ancient Legal Traditions			35
	B.	Christian Legal Traditions			40
	C.	The Rise of the Nation-State: Grotius and Vattel			42
	D.	The Growth of Positive Law			47
	E.	The Era of the Concert of Europe			49
		1.	Great Britain, France, and Russia in Greece (1827-30)		52
		2.	France in Syria (1860-61)		53
		3.	Russia in Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Bulgaria (1877-78)		54
		4.	The United States in Cuba (1898)		55
		4.	The United States in Cuba (1898)		55
		5.	Greece, Bulgaria, and Serbia in Macedonia (1913)		56
	F.	The Covenant of the League of Nations and the Kellogg-Brand Pact			57
		1.	Japan in Manchuria		61
		2.	Italy in Ethiopia		61
		3.	Germany in Czechoslovakia		61
	G.	Summary			62
3.	The UN Charter: Origins and Text				65
	A.	Dumbarton Oaks			66
	B.	The provisions of the UN Charter			68
		1.	Human Rights Provisions		69
		2.	Provisions on the Use of Force by States		70
		3.	Provisions on the Use of Force by the United Nations		75
		4.	Intervention During the Cold War (1945-89)		83
	A.	Incidents of Intervention			85
		1.	The Soviet Union in Eastern Europe		86
		2.	Belgium and the United States in the Congo (1964)		92
		3.	The United States in the Dominican Republic (1965)		94
		4.	India in East Pakistan (1971)		97
		5.	Syria in Lebanon (1976)		100
		6.	Vietnam in Cambodia (1978)		102
		7.	Tanzania in Uganda (1979)		105
		8.	France in Central Africa (1979)		107
		9.	The United States in Grenada (1983)		108
		10.	The United States in Panama (1989-90)		111
	B.	Developments at the United Nations During the Cold War			116
		1.	The Security Council		116
		2.	The General Assembly		120
		3.	ECOSOC and the Commission on Human Rights		126
		4.	The International Court of Justice		127
	C.	Regional Organizations			134
	D.	Interpretations by Scholars			135
	E.	Summary			142
5.	Incidents of Intervention After the Cold War				145
	A.	Liberia (1990)			146
		1.	Essential Facts		146
		2.	Assessment of the Intervention		158
	B.	Northern Iraq (1991) and Southern Iraq (1992)			165
		1.	Essential Facts		165
		2.	Assessment of the Intervention		182
	C.	Bosnia-Herzegovina (1992)			198
		1.	Essential Facts		198
		2.	Assessment of the Intervention		213
	D.	Somalia (1992)			217
		1.	Essential Facts		217
		2.	Assessment of the Intervention		236
	E.	Rwanda (1994)			243
		1.	Essential Facts		243
		2.	Assessment of the Intervention		256
	F.	Haiti (1993-94)			260
		1.	Essential Facts		260
		2.	Assessment of the Intervention		275
6.	The United Nations and Humanitarian Intervention				282
	A.	The Evolving Nature of "Threats to the Peace"			283
	B.	Premises and Problems in the Security Council's New Role			290
	C.	Duty to Intervene?			294
	D.	The Structure of the Security Council and the Role of Other UN Organs			297
	E.	The Means for UN Humanitarian Intervention			304
	F.	The Limits for UN Humanitarian Intervention			311
	G.	Key Difficulties Encountered to Date			315
	H.	Improvements for Future Interventions			321
7.	Regional Organizations and Humanitarian Intervention				335
	A.	Regional Arrangements Under the Charter			337
	B.	Applying Chapter VII to Humanitarian Intervention			343
		1.	Practice		344
		2.	Prospects		348
8.	Unilateral Humanitarian Intervention				355
	A.	Rules-Oriented Approach			358
	B.	Policy-Oriented Approach			366
		1.	Favoring Intervention to Promote Human Dignity and Justice		367
		2.	Favoring Intervention to Promote Systemic Stability		373
	C.	Philosophy-Oriented Approach			375
	D.	The Security Council as Authoritative Decisionmaker			379
	E.	Toward Criteria for the Conduct of Unilateral Humanitarian Intervention			382
	Conclusion				389
	Appendix: United Nations Documents				395
	Bibliography				399
	Index				419