Shades of Illegality in the Law Against War.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Marxsen, Christian.

Series:

Oxford Monographs in International Law Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Just war doctrine--lat.

Just war doctrine.

Aggression (International law)--lat.

Aggression (International law).

Illegality--lat.

Illegality.

War (International law)--lat.

War (International law).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (383 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2026.

Summary:

This book explores the prohibition of force in international law, examining frequent violations through a typology of illegality. It introduces the concept of "shades of illegality" to distinguish forms of unlawful force and their effects on legal norms, offering tools to assess the current state of this core principle.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Series

Title Page

Copyright Page

Acknowledegments

Table of Contents

Table of Cases

International Cases

National Cases By Country

Germany

United Kingdom

United States

Table of Other Primary Authorities

Treaties and Other International Instruments

UN Security Council

UN General Assembly

UN (Other)

Other International Resolutions

National Instruments

France

Israel

Russia/Soviet Union

Part I Foundations

1 Setting the Scene

I. Overview

II. Development of the Prohibition of the Use of Force in International Law

III. Unpacking Illegality

IV. Structure of the Book

2 Conceptualizing Illegality

I. Introduction

II. Three Concepts of Illegality

1. Objectivist Understanding of Illegality

2. Relativist Understanding of Illegality

3. Legality and Illegality as a Continuum

4. Conclusions On the Concept of Illegality

a) Differentiation of the Types of Application of the Law

b) Differentiation According to Actors

c) Objectivist Understanding of the Law as an Ideal

d) The Rationale for Relativism

III. Dealing With the Law's Indeterminacy

1. Causes of Legal Indeterminacy

2. Core and Periphery of Meaning

3. Indeterminacy and the Prohibition of Force

IV. Illegality and Norm Contestation

1. Dynamic Understanding of Norms and Contestation of Norms

2. Tensions Between Understanding of Norms in International Law and Political Science

3. Lessons From Political Science Analyses for International Legal Scholarship

V. Concluding Thoughts

Part II Typology of Illegality

3 Overview of the Types of Illegality

I. Unpacking Illegality

II. Overview of Subsequent Chapters

4 Conflict and Illegality in the Application of the Law

I. Introduction.

II. Dispute Over Application of Existing Law

III. Concretization of the Content of Legal Norms

IV. Confirmation of Legal Norms

1. The ICJ's Confirmation Hypothesis

2. Breach of Law as Confirmation of Law According to the Sources of International Law

3. Preconditions for Confirming a Legal Rule

a) Invocation of the Law

b) Invocation of an Established Norm

c) Invocation of an Established Interpretation of the Law

d) Limits of Confirmation: Cynical Use of the Law

e) Limits of Confirmation: Propagandistic Manipulation of the Facts

5 Necessity: Breach of Law in Individual Cases

II. Breach of Law and Legitimacy Arguments in Practice

III. 'Illegal But Legitimate'

IV. Exculpation of Unlawful Use of Force?

1. Basic Availability of Necessity as an Excuse

2. Jus Cogens Character of the Prohibition of the Use of Force, Article 26 ARSIWA

3. Preconditions for Necessity, Article 25(1) ARSIWA

4. Exclusion of the Invocation of Necessity, Article 25(2) ARSIWA

5. No Possibility of Exculpation

6 Application of the Law and Conflicts in the Grey Areas of the Law

II. The Grey Areas of the Law

III. Practice of Creating and Maintaining Grey Areas of the Law

1. Open Legal Norms and New Empirical Phenomena

2. Formulaic Compromises and Constructive Ambiguity

3. Practice Without Clear Opinio Juris

4. State Responses Open to Interpretation

5. Lack of Legal Regulation

6. Function of the Courts

IV. Grey Areas Between Integrative Effect and Pathology

7 Legislative Illegality: Law-Breaking as Law-Making

II. State Practice of 'law-Making By Law-Breaking'

III. The View From Legal Doctrine

IV. Potentials and Dangers of Legislative Illegality.

1. Potentials and Functions

2. Dangers of Legislative Illegality

3. The Paradox of Legislative Illegality

8 Systemic Opposition in Disguise

II. Covert Military Interventions

1. Covert Interventions in Practice

2. The Political Dimensions of Covert Military Interventions

3. Legal Standards and Consequences for the Law

4. Covert Practice and Erosion of Norms

III. Open Non-Invocation of the Law

1. State Practice of Open Non-Invocation of the Law

2. Impact On Norms of International Law

3. Weakening of the Law as a Normative System

IV. Danger of General Delegalization

9 Illegality and Systemic Opposition

II. Historical Forms of Systemic Opposition

1. Socialist International Law

a) The Thesis of the Inevitability of War

b) International Law of the Transitional Period

c) International Law and Permanent Peaceful Coexistence

d) Proletarian/socialist Internationalism

e) The Content of the Systemic Opposition of Socialist International Law

2. US Exceptionalism

a) Foreign Policy Doctrines of the United States

b) Systemic Opposition

c) Core of the US Strategy of Systemic Opposition

III. Recent and Current Systemic Challenges

1. Systemic Opposition From Within

2. Islamic State as a Revolutionary 'State'

3. Cynical Uses of International Law

4. Trumpism as an 'anti-Legal' Revolution

IV. Illegality, Systemic Opposition, and Integrative Capacity of the Law

Part III Outlook

10 Conclusions

II. The Levels of Conflict Over the Prohibition of the Use of Force

1. Level of Conflict 1: Application of the Law

2. Level of Conflict 2: Dispute Over Abstract-General Content of a Norm

3. Level of Conflict 3: Dispute Over Validity of the Prohibition of the Use of Force.

4. Ambivalences in the Choice of Level of Conflict

III. Law Versus Legitimacy

1. The Danger of Legitimacy Criteria

2. The Proper Place for Legitimacy Considerations Is On the Side of Legal Consequences

3. Elements of a Concept of Legitimacy

a) Action to Protect a Legal Interest Under International Law

b) Gravity of the Breach

c) Inability of Collective Security Institutions to Act

d) Legitimizing Role of the UN General Assembly

e) Other Positions Taken By the UN Security Council

f) Case-Specific Impact Assessment

g) Rule-Specific Impact Assessment

h) Formulation of Clear Standards

IV. Centrifugal Forces

11 Jus Contra Bellum Quo Vadis?

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-19-894488-8

0-19-894486-1

9780198944867

OCLC:

1569638707