About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

39 Yale J. Int'l L. 247 (2014)
Toward a Legal Theory on the Responsibility to Protect

handle is hein.journals/yjil39 and id is 277 raw text is: Article Toward a Legal Theory on the Responsibility to Protect Monica Hakimit I. IN TRO DUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 247 II. R2P'S PROM ISE AND CHALLENGE ............................................................................................... 251 III. THE UNFULFILLED PROMISE OF COLLECTIVE DUTIES................................................................ 254 A. Assigning R2P to All Outside States Simultaneously......................................................254 B. Assigning R2P to International Organizations.................................................................256 IV. THE POTENTIAL OF INDIVIDUAL DUTIES..................................................................................... 260 A . T heoretical Foundations................................................................................................... 261 1. The Seeds for Prescribing R2P-Relevant Conduct ............................................... 261 2. The Seeds for Grounding R2P Responsibilities.................................................... 263 B. An Exem plary Bundle of R2P D uties .............................................................................. 267 1. D uty to R espect ..................................................................................................... 268 2. D uty to Protect ...................................................................................................... 270 3. D uty N ot to O bstruct............................................................................................. 274 C . D uty to A ssist...................................................................................................................277 V . C O N CLU SIO N ................................................................................................................................280 1. INTRODUCTION Over the past several decades, the central focus of international law has shifted from protecting only sovereign states to protecting individuals.' Still, the worst imaginable human rights violations-genocides, ethnic cleansings, crimes against humanity, and systemic war crimes-occur with alarming fre- quency.2 And the international response is often slow or ineffectual. The most recent development for addressing this problem is the respon- t Associate Dean for Academic Programming & Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the May 2013 SHARES Conference at the University of Amsterdam Law School and the American Society of International Law Human Rights Workshop at the University of California at Berkeley Law School. I thank the participants in those events, in addition to Kristen Boon, Jacob Cogan, Karen Knop, Vijay Padmanabhan, Beth Van Schaack, and Ingrid Wuerth for helpful comments. I also thank Johanna Dennehy for exceptional research assis- tance. 1. See, e.g., RUTI G. TEITEL, HUMANITY'S LAW 9, 37 (2011); W. Michael Reisman, Sover- eignty and Human Rights in Contemporary International Law, 84 AM. J. INT'L L. 866, 872 (1990). 2. For evidence that these violations are the worst of the worst, see the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, art. 4, opened for signature July 17, 1998, 2187 U.N.T.S. 3; and U.N. Sec- retary-General, Implementing the Responsibility to Protect: Rep. of the Secretary-General, 10(b), U.N. Doc. A/63/677 (Jan. 12, 2009).

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most