The Threat of Force in International Law

Abstract

For a long time the subject of threats of force between states as a distinct field of study was surprisingly neglected both by international lawyers and, even, by international relations scholars. From the legal side Romana Sadurska’s 1988 article, ‘Threats of Force’, is one of the few items devoted to the issue, and its argument that there is a significant legal difference between a use and a threat of force under article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter was not widely accepted. In the Nuclear Weapons Opinion (1996) the International Court of Justice glossed over any possible distinctions between use and threat – despite their importance for the theory and practice of deterrence.