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Unbound in War? International Law and Britain's Participation in the Korean War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2020

Sean RICHMOND Open the ORCID record for Sean RICHMOND [Opens in a new window]
Sean RICHMOND*
Affiliation:
Carleton University, Canadasean.richmond@carleton.ca
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Abstract

This interdisciplinary paper examines the influence and interpretation of international law in the use of force by an important but understudied country, Britain, during one of the most significant conflicts since 1945: the Korean War of 1950–53. Through innovative application of sociological theories in International Law [IL] and International Relations [IR], and rigorous qualitative analysis of declassified documents, I advance a two-pronged argument. First, contrary to what some dominant IR perspectives might predict, Britain's involvement in the war suggests that international law can play four underappreciated roles when states use force: (1) it helps constitute the identity of actors; (2) it helps regulate their conduct; (3) it permits and legitimates certain actions; and (4) it structures the process by which agents seek to develop new rules. However, contrary to what many IL approaches might predict, it is unclear whether these effects are ultimately attributable to an obligatory quality in law.

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Articles
Information
Asian Journal of International Law , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , July 2020 , pp. 233 - 260
Copyright
Copyright © Asian Journal of International Law, 2020

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Footnotes

*

Barrister & Solicitor (Ontario). Instructor, Department of Law and Legal Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. orcid id: 0000-0002-2472-1836. This paper expands on doctoral research originally conducted at Oxford University under a Commonwealth Scholarship and a Fellowship from Canada's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. For helpful comments on earlier drafts and findings, I would like to thank Dapo Akande, Karen Alter, David Blagden, Martha Finnemore, Nina Hall, Andrew Hurrell, Edward Keene, Amy King, Michael Manulak, Travers McLeod, Sarah Percy, Ruben Reike, Rebecca Sanders, Duncan Snidal, Nora Stappert, Henning Tamm, Michael Urban, Jennifer Welsh, and the two anonymous reviewers for this Journal.

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133. See e.g. Richmond, supra note 3, for a related examination of the impact and interpretation of international law in Australia's approach to Afghan detainees.

134. Anderson, supra note 12.

135. On the Iraq War, see Peevers, supra note 10.

136. I thank the editors of this Journal and one of the anonymous reviewers of the manuscript for this important observation. The Gulf War of 1991 may be particularly relevant for further study, as it—like Korea—also involved a rare authorization from the Security Council for states to use collective force to restore international peace.

137. See e.g. Tannenwald, supra note 7.

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144. I thank Andrew Hurrell for this observation.

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