The Use of Force in Internat

Book Review
Submitted to: Dr Ishtiaq

Submitted by: Abdullah Tariq

Roll no : 20108001-014

Subject:- Human Rights Law

Section: Blue
Book Review: The Use of Force in International Law

By Dr. Waseem Ahmad Qureshi

The Author of the book, Dr. Qureshi is advocate of Supreme Court of Pakistan and has been
additional advocate in General Punjab. He is awarded with Ordine Della Stella D’Italia by the
Government of Italy. He received “Chevalier de l’ Ordre National du Merite” award from French
Republic. He has been Fulbright Fellow at Washington Collage of Law, American University,
USA, back in 2005. The book is published recently in April 2017, published by Nust Press,
Islamabad under the banner of National Book Foundation Islamabad.

The book contains 5 chapters, each chapter deals with a step of use of force staring with the
general concepts and definitions of use of forces leads to the historical evolution of practice and
legalization of use of force. Third chapter deals with the use of force in UN charter and its
limitation while last two chapter discuss the contemporary issues beyond the charter of UN
including International Police action, Humanitarian interventions, anticipatory self-defense and
issue of R2P with in a state dealing with non-state extremist actors (The Unwilling and Unable
Test) followed by conclusions, bibliography, and annexures.

The book starts discussion with the evolution of human community that ended upon today’s
international state system with the modern weapons of mass destruction, thus there must some
laws for the use of force in international community. This book basically encompasses the two
components of Just War i.e. Jus ad Bellum and Jus in Bello. So basically this book covers the
rules of international law regulating the right to go for war along rules, ethics, and morals of
international humanitarian law, which come into play once nations are in state of war. As per
author only two reasons for waging are war is Just first when Security Council of UN approves
it, second when nation need to defend itself (self-defense) (P. 27). The rules ethics during war,
that applies to the hostiles, atrocities and a certain group of peoples including non-combatants,
children, women, and non-livings. Rules for such groups are also derived from a legal bonding
i.e. Geneva Conventions 1949. Historical it is considered that the Jus ad bellow and Jus in Bello
are two different concepts and could be applied in two different stages of war while according to
author in recent developments for the effective results these two concepts needed to by apply
simultaneously (P. 33). Author differentiated self-defense with the component of Just War by

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supreme emergency doctrine in which a state is justified by overriding the Jus in Bello, in
extreme self-defense; state can use weapons that are prohibited otherwise on humanitarian bases
(P.35).

The book further discusses the evolution and five phases of use of force. First phase is the Just
War period, the period started with the pre modern history (named classical phase) when the war
took place for the three basic reasons; survival; against slavery; and war should be for the
purpose of peace. Then period move forward to the Christianity phase in which war was
legitimized by God, with certain norms and ethics, and have adopted the holy wars approach.
Later in the period secular phase last which developed the notion “jus ad bellum” (P.43) the
secular phase focused on natural law approach then the religious one, so that it valid in the
absence of the God and minimized the role of religion. Second phase named as the Positivist
period by author, which is more of evolution in the discourse of legality of Just war due to rapid
change in international politics i.e. state system, in which short wars are justified by Naulilaa
case and for the contract debts collection second Hague convention 1907 provided legality. After
the World War I, League of Nation formed an international organization that work for the peace
and with implies restriction as per its covenant; Article 12 and 15, that provide right of use of
force on certain conditions. Such as Article 12: wait for at least 3 months before going for a war
Article 15: if a state is not abiding the decision other say wage war against it. League of national
dissolve and World War II broke out after the WWII, The UN charter provide legal framework
for states where use of force is allowed and where is not. Within the UN charter the Article 2, 39,
41, 42 and 51 specifically deals with the use of force (P.52).

The last two chapters deals with the use of force beyond of UN charter and the unwilling or
unable of a state to counter the contemporary threat relies within a state that also affect the
international community (i.e. non state actors, extremism etc). The author classified seven
situations that are beyond the UN charter. Uniting for the Peace resolution is because of the veto
powers given to the permanent members of UN as author gave the example of Korean War (P.
71). War of liberation with legalized by UN general assembly is also includes the limitation of
the UN charter. Furthermore humanitarian intervention is also not cleared in the UN charter on
what basics these interventions should be done so that it should not be politicized. International
police action, chronic disorder in neighbor territory along force for executing an arbitral

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judgment and anticipated self-defense are also excluded in the scope of UN charter according to
the author (P.87). Later author critically evaluate R2P (strong and limited) while limited R2P is
more legalize as author stated “favoring this limited R2P doctrine, the international community
have supporting the restriction on unilateral interventions” (P.92). In the end author critically
evaluate how super power used the unwilling or unable test of state to gain its influence there
and how super power justified their actions, author took the example of US attacks on IS,
consensus was neither taken by congress nor the UN claimed that US already allowed to attack
Al-Qaida and this organization is also part of Al-Qaida, Obama administration continues to refer
to the Islamic States as ISIL (P. 118)

The book explores the legality of Use of Force in contemporary world and its historical
evolution. It critically analyzes the practice of laws on use of force. It also indicates flaws and
limitations in the existing laws. This is good book for the general understanding of Use of Force
in International communities (among states and non-state actors). The author use easy and
immaculate language throughout the book. I refer this study to the students of law and social
sciences such as international relations, peace and conflict studies, defense and strategic studies
(specifically) for the basic and compulsory understanding about the legality of use of force in
international law.

Furthermore, the book is more of essay format because of its descriptive nature. The book
consists on existing perspectives and developments mostly. Subsequently, author left questions
open ended and his own argument and analysis throughout the book is missing.

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