This is part of a series of posts discussing the UK Attorney General's speech on the Modern Law of Self-Defence. See also the other posts in the series by Monica Hakimi and Marko Milanovic. It’s a pleasure to be able to contribute to this EJIL:Talk! discussion of the speech this week by the UK Attorney General, Jeremy Wright QC MP, on “The Modern Law of Self-Defence”. There are two elements of the speech that strike me as especially notable, and on which I’d like to give my initial thoughts here: the invocation of the so-called ‘unwilling or unable’ test and, particularly, the meaning of ‘imminence’ in relation to anticipatory self-defence. Unwilling or Unable The explicit acceptance by the UK of the ‘unwilling or unable’ concept, while brief, is a conspicuous feature of the Attorney General’s speech. The speech roots itself in tradition, with nods to the power and weight of history (stretching right back to the 1795 Jay Treaty, as well as, of…
Pre-emptive Self Defence
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What Is An Imminent Armed Attack? A Hopefully Helpful Hypo
Yesterday we had the privilege to publish the speech by the UK Attorney General, Jeremy Wright QC MP, setting out some of the UK Government’s views on the law of self-defence. The speech focused in particular on the criteria for assessing the imminence of an armed attack by a non-state actor, and essentially endorsed some of…
The UK’s Most Recent Volley on Defensive Force
The legal position that Attorney General Wright presented yesterday is similar to the one that the United States has advanced in recent years. Here’s what I take to be the core elements of the UK claim: The use of force is sometimes permissible to defend against an imminent attack. For an attack…
On Preventive Killing
If we wait for threats to fully materialize, we will have waited too long. We must take the battle to the enemy, disrupt his plans and confront the worst threats before they emerge. In the world we have entered, the only path to safety is the path to action. And this nation will act. George…
UK Government Rejects Pre-emptive Self Defence With Respect to Iran
The Guardian reports that the United Kingdom has denied a United States request to use UK military bases in Cyprus as well as in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans for a buildup of military forces in the Gulf. Apparently, the US requests have been made as part of 'routine' contingency planning for potential military action against Iran. In rejecting the…
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