6 - Concluding Remarks

Summary

This concluding chapter argues that conventional approaches addressing the development of customary international law relating to the use of force are unable to make sense of the changing practices and technologies that are explored throughout the book. It is argued that rather than focusing on an ambiguously defined requirement of publicity, practice will meet the minimum qualitative requirement as soon as it is publicly known and acknowledged. The chapter further highlights how methodological choices relating to the positioning within international lawmaking of covert operations that are publicly known contribute to the creation of spaces for a range of actors seeking to influence the development of the law. By positioning some acts as ‘outside’ of the international lawmaking process, it leaves open new opportunities to decide what the acts are, and how they should be responded to.