Military assistance on request and collective self-defence

Green, James

Abstract

The concepts of military assistance on request (or ‘intervention by invitation’) and collective self-defence are, in some respects, strikingly similar. They both involve a prima facie unlawful use of force by one state, undertaken at the request of another, which can be rendered lawful as a result of that request. It is perhaps unsurprising, therefore, that when one begins to examine instances of state invocation of military assistance on request and/or collective self-defence, it quickly becomes clear that these claims are often blurred or mixed. This paper aims to contribute to and build upon the small pocket of existing literature that has sought to map out and differentiate the concepts. It starts by exploring the relationship between the concepts at the ‘doctrinal’ or ‘conceptual’ level. The paper then turns to the claims that have been advanced in the UN era by states, where the reverse is true. States have, for the most part, been unhelpfully unclear when advancing legal claims related to uses of force, making drawing a clear distinction in practice extremely difficult. The majority of the paper then will examine the various legal requirements (actual or, in some cases, arguable) for military assistance on request and collective self-defence, with the aim of highlighting similarities or differences as they arise. The goal is better to map the concepts in the hope of advancing our understanding of their relationship.

• Presentation Conference Type: Presentation / Talk
• Conference Name: International Law Association Biennial Conference
• Start Date: Jun 21, 2022
• End Date: Jun 21, 2022
• Deposit Date: Mar 2, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 2, 2023
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10492380