Aggression

Vol. 41, Nos. 2 & 3 (2009)

 

Terrorist Financing

Vol. 41, No. 1 (2009)

 

Security Detention

Vol. 40, No. 3 (2009)

 

The Genocide Convention

Vol. 40, Nos. 1 & 2 (2008)

 

Religion and Terror

Vol. 39, No. 3 (2007-08)

 

Lessons From the Saddam Trial

Vol. 39, Nos. 1 & 2 (2006-07)

 

The Fifth Plague

Vol. 38, Nos. 3 & 4 (2006-07)

 

International Justice and Shifting Paradigms

Vol. 38, No. 2 (2006-07)

 

Rebuilding Nation Building

Vol. 38, No. 1 (2006)

 

Torture and the War on Terror

Vol. 37, Nos. 2 & 3 (2006)

 

 

AGGRESSION, HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION, AND TERRORISM

 

Larry May

 

I. JUS AD BELLUM PRINCIPLES: HISTORICAL ROOTS OF THE IDEA OF STATE AGGRESSION

If there are going to be trials for those who initiate or perpetrate an aggressive war, what constitutes an aggressive war, or an act of State aggression, needs to be defined. Indeed, if individuals are going to be prosecuted, and their liberty put in serious jeopardy, for allegedly committing this crime, it is incumbent on the international community to have a very clear understanding of what State aggression is. Philosophers, diplomats, and lawyers have debated this topic for hundreds of years and have not all agreed. This article discusses several ideas about the definition of aggression in which there might be broad consensus, even if much of the terrain of aggression remains mired in political and ideological squabbles.

A quite useful starting point for understanding State aggression is the relatively modern-sounding translation of Thomas More's work. Here is part of More's discussion of Just Wars . . .

 

41 CASE W. RES. J. INT’L L. 321 (2009).

 

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