The True Meaning of Force

Abstract

Tom Ruys's article in the latest issue of the American Journal of International Law is an erudite study of the prohibition on the use of force in UN Charter Article 2(4). Ruys makes many points with which I wholeheartedly agree. In note 241, he says that the case for cross-border drone attacks by the United States verges on stretching criteria for necessity, proportionality, and armed attack to the point of absurdity.... He is also right to reject emerging claims that the defense of necessity provides a basis for the lawful resort to force. Indeed, there is much that is truly excellent about the article-just not, unfortunately, its central thesis.