Collective security

Yoram Dinstein

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511920622.016

10 - Collective security

from Part III - Exceptions to the prohibition of the use of inter-State force

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012

Yoram Dinstein

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Yoram Dinstein: Affiliation:
Tel-Aviv University

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Definition

806. Collective security postulates the institutionalization of the lawful use of force in the international community. What is required is a multilateral treaty, whereby Contracting Parties create an international agency vested with the power to employ force against aggressors (and perhaps other law-breakers). Such an instrument is basically ‘introverted’ in character (designed against a potential future aggressor from among the Contracting Parties), unlike a collective self-defence treaty (see supra 751) which is ‘extroverted’ (envisaging aggression from outside the system). Collective security shares with collective self-defence the fundamental premise that recourse to force against aggression can (and perhaps must) be made by those who are not the immediate victims. But self-defence, either individual or collective, is exercised at the discretion of a single State acting unilaterally or a group of States. Collective security operates on the strength of an authoritative decision made by a central organ of the international community.

The Covenant of the League of Nations

807. The system of collective security has its roots in the League of Nations. Article 10 of the League’s Covenant (cited supra 220) empowered the Council to advise Member States on the means to be taken in case of aggression or threat of aggression. Article 11 (cited supra 221) declared that any war or threat of war, whether or not immediately affecting any Member, was a matter of concern to the whole League, which had to take action as required to safeguard peace among nations. Article 16 stipulated that, if any Member resorted to war in violation of its obligations under Articles 12, 13 or 15 of the Covenant (see supra 221–3), it was ipso facto deemed to have committed an act of war against all other Members. All trade or financial relations with the transgressor, including commerce between nationals, had to be severed. The Article went on to instruct the Council to recommend to the Governments concerned what effective military, naval or air contribution they should make to the armed forces which were to be used for the protection of the Covenant’s obligations. Expulsion of a Member from the League for violation of any of the Covenant’s obligations was also authorized. Accordingly, in December 1939, the Council decided to expel the Soviet Union from the League because of its attack on Finland. Article 17 (cited supra 224) applied the provisions of Article 16 in the event that a non-Member State embarked upon war against a Member.

Type: Chapter
Information: War, Aggression and Self-Defence , pp. 303 - 350

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511920622.016 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2011

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10 - Collective security

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