ACCEPTABILITY OF THE USE OF FORCE BEFORE THE GENERAL TREATY

SUMMARY

From 1928, when the General Treaty for Renunciation of War was signed, there has been international abhorrence of the use of force in international relations. This abhorrence is made evidently manifest under Articles 2 (4) of the United Nations Charter. However, interestingly, the legal regime for the prohibition of the use of force is not cast in stone. Exceptions have been created within the Charter itself. Articles 51 is one of the exceptions to the prohibition of the use force. It guarantees individual and collective right of states to self-defense if an armed attack occurs. 46 Locating the right to anticipatory self-defense within the ambit of Section 51 has been very difficult and controversial. The right to anticipatory self-defense which is self-defense in anticipation of an imminent attack is founded on the authority of the Caroline Incident, but, the Caroline Incident is not a weighty or binding authority. This is so, because it is neither statutorily recognized nor judicially acknowledged. It is simply a product of correspondences between representatives of the United States and Britain.