030335 KU Collective Security and the Use of Force (2017S)

The course will examine the role of the United Nations Security Council and its member States in the maintenance of international peace and security. It will examine the power of the UNSC in terms of Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter. In doing so, it will examine the powers of the UNSC to adopt non-military as well as military measures fort the maintenance and/ or restoration of inter-national peace and security. For example, it will question whether the UNSC needs to respect human rights when adopting economic sanctions; as well as whether it may lift the immunity of Heads of State when referring situations to the International Criminal Court.

The course will further question the powers of the UNSC in adopting military measures under Chapter VII of the Charter, for example in the context of the responsibility to protect/ R2P. In addition, it will highlight how this role is increasingly eclipsed by an expanded definition and use of the right to individual and collective self-defence, as well as military intervention by invitation in various regions across the globe. This analysis will inter alia require an examination of the different legal criteria attached to the different legal bases for military intervention and their relationship with one another.