Mir i međunarodno pravo
Peace and International Law

Author(s): Boris Krivokapić
Subject(s): International Law, Peace and Conflict Studies
Published by: Правни факултет Универзитета у Источном Сарајеву
Keywords: Peace;Aggression;Peacful settlement of disputes;Organization of United Nations
Summary/Abstract: The paper has three main parts. In the first, introductory, part the author deals with the definition of peace, especially the world peace.The second part is dedicated to providing the preconditions for a lasting world peace. It can be ensured only if certain conditions have been previously met. Some of them are related to the legal regulation of the relevant issues, and others to factual issues. These are: 1) legal prohibition of force and threats of force, 2) the existence of the legal definition of aggression, 3) designation of international crime of aggression, 4) designation of the obligation of peaceful settlement of international disputes, 5) an effective system of collective measures against any potential aggressor (collective security), 6) disarmament, 7) development of a peace culture. The author dedicates his attention to each of these problems.In the third part, the author presents the main conclusions. He notes that all of the previously discussed moments are only prerequisites for ensuring world peace – they are necessary but not sufficient. In other words, each of them separately or even together still do not guarantee peace.Referring to the fact that we have witnessed that the use of various forms of the armed force has still not been eradicated in international relations, the author raises the question why this is so, and why UN collective security has proven to be rather ineffective.According to him, there are several reasons, including the top three – the Cold War, nuclear weapons and the subjective factor. Finally, the author concludes that, generally speaking, a stable international peace can not be ensured without a corresponding contribution from international law and that in fact international law really gave a great contribution to inter-national peace in various ways. However, he also notes that the law may be ideal, perfect, and still in practice there can be violence, lawlessness etc. This suggests that the war, unfortunately, will be a reality for a long time to come. Thus there is still a very important part of the international law called the Law of Armed Conflicts (Law of War and Humanitarian Law) which governs relations during the hostilities, so that this somewhat limits the means and methods of warfare, and provides the most necessary protection to certain categories of persons and objects.

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