Need for a New Concept to Fill the Ever-Present Normative Gap

The question whether the current discrepancy between existing international law, with the strict dependence on a potentially blocked Security Council, and moral exigencies to stop mass atrocities can be dissolved by establishing a legal framework allowing for the unilateral resort to force for humanitarian purposes is controversially debated. This chapter discusses the main points of criticism that negate the need for the development of a new concept in jus ad bellum. Some argue that any such breach of Art. 2.4 UN Charter (if understood traditionally) was better addressed in international criminal law or blatantly illegal. Others turn to morality to justify an otherwise illegal act. In the final part of this chapter the argument for establishing a rules-based system for unilateral humanitarian military action is made.