[...]... warrant recourse to collective or even state -to- state force In 1945, Britain, despite its lofty rhetoric, joined the Soviet Union in opposing all drafts of the Charter that would have made illegal a state s violence against persons and subjected it to the same sanctions as violence perpetrated against another state Sir Alexander Cadogan at Dumbarton Oaks opposed a proposed reference to human rights and. .. the Nuremberg tribunal was called upon to draw a much brighter line than hitherto against aggression So, too, at Dumbarton Oaks and San Francisco, a UN Charter was written that makes absolute the obligation of states not to resort to force against each other and to resist collectively any breach of this prohibition New remedies, as we know from medicine, tend to produce unexpected side effects Article... of its stated requirement to seek peaceful settlement24 and obliged states to act individually or collectively through the Council to defend victims of aggression.25 Thus, for the first time, the Lauterpachtian injunction – “there shall be no violence” – is both stated and given rudimentary tools of enforcement Nevertheless, these injunctions were directed (in Articles 12 and 16) only against states’... seems to require a state to await an actual attack on itself before instituting countermeasures Inevitably, states responded to the new dangers by claiming a right of “anticipatory self-defence.” That claim, however, is not supported by the Charter’s literal text And “anticipatory self-defence,” too, is vulnerable to reductio ad absurdum If every state were free to determine for itself when to initiate... of their negotiators, were well aware that the League had failed to prevent state violence by making too conditional states’ commitment not to resort to – and collectively to resist – armed aggression They aspired to a more definitive commitment to peace Second, at least some of them also sensed that this lesson of the past, while underscoring the importance of firm collective guarantees against aggression,... humanity and justice is being given such priority as to verge on injustice, as well as posing a threat to the peaceful order based on respect for state sovereignty Succeeding chapters will examine the implications of this shifting balance between peace and justice and its effect on the law pertaining to recourse to force by the United Nations, regional and mutual-defense organizations, and individual states... to maintain or restore international peace and security.” Article 25 requires all members of the United Nations to join in implementing such decisions Finally, Article 42 authorizes the Council, lesser measures having failed, to “take such action by air, sea, or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security.” To that end, Article 43 pledges all members to. .. provisions are central to the Charter enterprise Their drafting history helps illuminate the original intent behind the language 1 Memorandum by the Under Secretary of State (Stettinius) to the Secretary of State (Hull), September 1, 1944 1 Foreign Relations of the United States, 1944, 761, 762 21 Recourse to Force In an early (1943) memorandum by Secretary of State Cordell Hull to President Roosevelt... Ian Brownlie, International Law and the Use of Force by States 60 (1963) 10 The United Nations’ capacity for adapting to radical changes of circumstance significantly, these nations, together with Britain and Italy, each undertook “immediately to come to the help” of a “Party against whom a violation or breach has been directed as soon as [the guarantor] has been able to satisfy itself that this violation... all recourse to military force Failure to adhere to this new law was to be met by decision of the 20 Use of force by the United Nations Security Council acting, first as a jury to determine whether there had been a breach of the peace, by whom, and how serious it was, and then deciding what collective measures might appropriately be taken to put matters right Although, at the time of the Dumbarton Oaks . h0" alt="" This page intentionally left blank Recourse to Force State Action Against Threats and Armed Attacks The nations that drafted the UN Charter. under International Law 0 521 46324 6 Recourse to Force State Action Against Threats and Armed Attacks THOMAS M. FRANCK New York University School of Law 