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66 Am. J. Int'l L. 1 (1972)
Reprisals Involving Recourse to Armed Force

handle is hein.journals/ajil66 and id is 8 raw text is: REPRISALS INVOLVING RECOURSE TO ARMED FORCE1 By Derek Bowett * Few propositions about international law have enjoyed more support than the proposition that, under the Charter of the United Nations, the use of force by way of reprisals is illegal. Although, indeed, the words reprisals and retaliation are not to be found in the Charter, this propo- sition was generally regarded by writers 2 and by the Security Council as the logical and necessary consequence of the prohibition of force in Ar- ticle 2(4), the injunction to settle disputes peacefully in Article 2(3) and the limiting of permissible force by states to self-defense. The U.N. Dec- laration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States, adopted by General Assembly Resolution 2625 (XXV) on October 24, 1970, contains the following categorical state- ment: States have a duty to refrain from acts of reprisal involving the use of force. In recent years, and principally though not exclusively in the Middle East, this norm of international law has acquired its own credibility gap by reason of the divergence between the norm and the actual practice of states. So much is this so that Professor Falk, in a recent article entitled The Beirut Raid and the International Law of Retaiation, has sug- 1 This essay was commissioned by the American Society of International law as the working paper of its study Panel on Reprisals and Retaliation in International Law. The author revised his paper to take account of the Panel's discussion as well as im- portant developments since the original version was written. Because of its signifi- cance, the article was referred to this JormNAL in its revised Panel form and is being run without attempting to update it further. The paper focuses on the experience in the Middle East, both because of its rich- ness and importance, and because of the extensive consideration given to that experi- ence by the Security Council and other international organs.-ED. • Cambridge University. 2The literature on this point, though not very penetrating on account of the as- sumed authority of the proposition, is very extensive; the following is no more than a sample: Goodrich and Hambro, Charter of the United Nations 95-96, 102 (London: Stevens and Sons, 1949); Brownlie, International Law and the Use of Force by States, Ch. XI (Oxford University Press, 1963); I-tggins, The Development of International Law through the Political Organs of the United Nations 202-205, 217-218 (Oxford University Press, 1963). Both Brownlie and Higgins cite additional authorities: Wal- dock, 81 Hague Academy, Recueil des Cours 475-494 (1952, II); Sofrensen, 101 ibid. 219 (1960, III); Skubiszewski, in Sorensen, Manual of Public International Law 754- 755 (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1968). The authors maintaining a contrary view, i.e., accepting a continuing, permissible r6le for armed reprisals, are Colbert, Retaliation in International Law 203 (New York: King's Crown Press, 1948); and Stone, Aggression and World Order 43, 94-98 (1958). 3 63 AJ.I.L. 415-443 (1969). For a critical reply to this article see Blum, The Beirut Raid and the International Double Standard. A Reply to Professor Richard A. Falk, 64 ibid. 73-105 (1970),

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