Threat of force in

public international law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...

is a situation between states described by

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

lawyer

Ian Brownlie Sir Ian Brownlie (19 September 1932, Liverpool – 3 January 2010, Cairo) was a British barrister and academic, specialising in international law. He was Chichele Professor of Public International Law from 1980 to 1999. Early life and edu ...

as: :an express or implied promise by a government of a resort to force conditional on non-acceptance of certain demands of that government.International Law and the Use of Force by States

, CBE, QC, FBA, March 26, 1963,

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

Submission by Aidan O’Neill QC
, Aidan O'Neill QC The 1969

Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) is an international agreement regulating treaties between states. Known as the "treaty on treaties", it establishes comprehensive rules, procedures, and guidelines for how treaties are defined ...

notes in its preamble that both the

threat A threat is a communication of intent to inflict harm or loss on another person. Intimidation is a tactic used between conflicting parties to make the other timid or psychologically insecure for coercion or control. The act of intimidation for co ...

and the use of force are prohibited. Moreover, in Article 52, it establishes the principle that if threats of using force are made during

diplomatic negotiations Diplomacy comprises spoken or written communication by representatives of states (such as leaders and diplomats) intended to influence events in the international system.Ronald Peter Barston, ''Modern diplomacy'', Pearson Education, 2006, p. 1 ...

, then any resulting treaty is invalid, stating "A treaty is void if its conclusion has been procured by the threat or use of force in violation of the principles of international law embodied in the Charter of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

See also

References

Further reading