Humanitarian Intervention Legality, Justice and Legitimacy人道主义干涉的合法性，公正性和合法性.doc

Humanitarian Intervention: Legality, Justice and Legitimacy T.D. Gill( 1. Introduction The current humanitarian crisis in the Sudan has reawakened the discussion concerning the rights and wrongs of humanitarian intervention. Some four-five years and two years ago, this discussion was carried out intensively at the diplomatic level and in the pages of academic journals against the background of the NATO intervention in Kosovo. The recurring nature of the discussion reflects not only the unfortunate reality that large scale violations of human rights form a systemic problem or which the international community has no instant solution. It also reflects the fact that humanitarian intervention is a highly complex subject which can, and to at least some extent must be approached in a way which takes account of political, ethical and legal considerations. This is illustrated by the above-mentioned example of the intervention by NATO in Kosovo. The fact that it was carried out without a specific mandate from the UN Security Council was an important, but by no means the only consideration relating to the way the intervention was viewed and assessed by the international community. An analysis which only took account of whether or not a specific case of humanitarian intervention was carried out with a UN mandate would ignore important elements of the overall problem and would contain a large measure of artificiality. On the other hand, it is impossible to ignore the legal dimension of any decision to utilize force, including in relation to humanitarian intervention, without potentially undermining the international system, risking the possibility of diplomatic isolation for a given military operation. This in turn is illustrated by the example of the invasion and occupation of Iraq by the United States and a handful of its closest allies; which while not primarily based upon the doctrine of humanitarian intervention, does show the pitfalls of military intervention without a