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Collective Security and Collective Self-Defense Under the Charter of the United Nations*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2017

Hans Kelsen
Hans Kelsen*
Affiliation:
University of California
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Extract

Collective security is the main purpose of the United Nations, just as it was the main purpose of its predecessor, the League of Nations. What does collective security mean? Under general international law the principle of self-help prevails. The protection of the legal interests of the states against violations on the part of other states is left to the individual state whose right has been violated. General international law authorizes the state, i.e., the individual member of the international community, to resort, in case of a violation of its rights, to reprisals or war against that state which is responsible for the violation. Reprisals and war are enforcement actions. Insofar as they are reactions against violations of the law, and authorized by it, they have the character of sanctions. We speak of collective security when the protection of the rights of the states, the reaction against the violation of the law, assumes the character of a collective enforcement action.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 42 , Issue 4 , October 1948 , pp. 783 - 796
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1948

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Footnotes

*

Address delivered at the regional meeting of the American Society of International Law held at Seattle, Washington, August 12, 1948.

References

1 Department of State, Conference Series 74 (Publication 2353).

2 U. 8. Treaties, Conventions, International Acts, etc., Vol. III , p. 3336; Department of State, Papers relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Paris Peace Conference, 1919, Vol. XIII , p. 69.

3 Cf. Kelsen, Hans,“ Sanctions in International Law under the Charter of the United Nations,” Iowa Law Review, Vol. 31 (1946), pp. 499-543.Google Scholar

4 Cf.Kunz, Josef L. “ Individual and Collective Self-Defense in Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations,” this Journal, Vol. 41 (1947), p. 872 Google Scholarft.

5 Department of State Bulletin, Sept. 21, 1947, p. 565; Pan American Union, Congress and Conf. Ser., No. 53.

6 Department of State Bulletin, May 9, 1948, p. 600; Great Britain, Misc. Ser. No. 2 (1948), Cmd. 7367.