Israel’s bloody war in Gaza has caused unprecedented death and destruction. Images of terrified and screaming children have stained humanity’s collective conscience. This war started when the world was still reeling from the shock of Russia’s brazenly illegal invasion of Ukraine, which, too, has caused devastation. These two wars have led many to pronounce the death of international law, especially the rule prohibiting the use of force in international relations — the crown jewel of the United Nations Charter codified in Article 2(4). But this is not the first time international law has been declared dead. More than 50 years ago too, Thomas Franck argued that Article 2(4) was dead because it worked on the flawed assumption that the permanent members of the UN Security Council would continue to cooperate after World War-2.
While it is true that the international community has abjectly failed in preventing or stopping these wars, penning an obituary for international law is a grave mistake. True, international law suffers from several structural deficiencies. In fact, critical scholars would trace the origin of the ongoing and past military conflicts in the genealogy of international law laced with imperial and colonial character. It is also a fact that, unlike municipal law, international law lacks a global police force to enforce it successfully, notwithstanding the growth of several international courts and tribunals. Yet, international law matters.
