Civil conflict, a violent conflict fought between factions internal to a sovereign State, is traditionally considered to be a domestic matter within the exclusive jurisdiction of States and neither permitted nor prohibited by international law permission. However, increasingly, States, regional organisations and the UN intervene in civil conflicts: they condemn civil conflicts, call on parties to cease fighting and to resolve their disputes by peaceful means, and impose sanctions or intervene forcefully. This thesis reviews this accumulating practice, which has up to now not been systematically analysed, and explores what changes it evidences - or foreshadows - in the relationship between civil conflict and international law. The thesis adopts a two part structure. Part I reviews and categorises the practice of the international community (particularly that of the Council, States and regional organisations) in response to civil conflict. Part II seeks to analyse this practice and investigates whether it evidences the emergence of new norms of jus ad bellum internum prohibiting certain forms of civil conflict. The thesis begins by setting out a cross section of relevant practice. It first charts the practice of the Security Council in response to 42 civil conflicts since 1945. The thesis then considers three recent cases studies in detail (Sierra Leone, Côte d'Ivoire and Liberia) from the perspective of the response of the Security Council, States and regional organisations. This review establishes that there is a substantial and growing amount of international community intervention in civil conflicts, contrary to what could be expected given its domestic nature. The thesis then turns to an analysis of this practice, which essentially requires an evaluation of the impact that condemnatory practice by States and regional actors and the Security Council can have on international law. In general terms, an evaluation of whether this practice should be characterised as a policy - or nonbinding - response, or whether its existence and repetition evidences, or anticipates, the emergence of international law rules, such as the emergence of new customary law norms of jus ad bellum internum. In order to address this issue, it became clear that a number of methodological questions that have not up to now received much attention in the literature would need to be considered: in particular the role the Security Council plays in shaping new international law. This role is markedly under-theorized - in contrast to that of the General Assembly practice in customary law formation which has been widely debated - but is central to the thesis because of the remarkable scope of Security Council practice in response to civil conflicts. Following the examination of this question, the thesis takes the view that Security Council practice is relevant evidence of the practice of States and of the collective attitude of the international community. It also influences the conduct and attitude of States. In addition, where the Security Council regularly condemns certain conduct in a range of similar situations and seeks to enforce its condemnation, it can create a quasi-legislative prohibition against that conduct. Following the analysis of the practice, the thesis concludes that contrary to widespread assumptions, civil conflict is no longer treated as a domestic matter, and is increasingly being recognised as having a severe impact on the peace and stability of the world. A major and continuing shift in practice is relied on to support predictions of fundamental change in the perception of the legality of recourse to force in civil conflict. The thesis identifies three possible norms within the practice: the rejection of civil conflict aiming to overthrow a democratically elected government; the rejection of civil conflict aiming to cause or causing massive violence against civilians; and the rejection of civil conflict which is undertaken for political aims (other than in self-defence by a State against violent uprising or by a people in self-defence against violent oppression). Much of the practice is too recent and not established enough in the public discourse of States to evidence the emergence of traditional customary law rules at present. Nonetheless, there is strong evidence to support the emergence of a limited norm prohibiting the overthrow of a democratically elected government. In addition, the extent and scope of the international community condemnation and rejection of civil conflict can be taken to support the proposition that, in time, broader international prohibitions against civil conflict will crystallize in international law.

This thesis argues that orthodox social constructionist and culturalist explanations of the mutation of interpersonal violence in the Anglo-American world over the past three decades need to be challenged. Macro-patterns of interpersonal violence appearing over historical time and social space indicate a direct correlation with changes in political economy. It is argued here that specific forms of physical and sublimated symbolic violence were functional to the development of mercantile and classic industrial capitalism, and thus they were cultivated and harnessed in complex forms across this time period. This suggests that the 'civilizing process' formulated in terms of evolving social relationships and emotional sensibilities is inadequate as an explanation for the decline in the murder and serious violence rates in Europe, and this concept needs to be reformulated in a direct relationship with political economy. The new concept of the 'pseudo-pacification process' arose from an attempted reformulation, which represents the internal pacification of the population as an accidental and rather fragile by-product of capitalism's functional requirements. Current rises in the rates of murder and serious interpersonal violence in vortices appearing in the shift from the classical productivist economy managed by interventionist state politics to a consumer/service economy managed by neo-liberal politics suggests that indeed the aetiological connection between political economy and violence rates needs to be returned to the foreground of criminological theory. The putative 'sensibilities' at the heart of the civilizing process are more likely to be emotional attachments to the rules and affectations that evolved as protective insulation for the brutally competitive practices that energise the capitalist economic project, and they are in danger of disintegrating as the pseudo-pacification process loses much of its functional value in the consumer economy and begins to break down.

L’action directe apparut dès 1870, sous la plume de Bakounine. Celui-ci la comparait aux« prodiges de 1793 ». En 1870-1871, l’action directe fut clairement associée à la terreur et directement mise en application durant la Commune de Paris. Les anarchistes de la Fédération Jurassienne, fortement inspirés par Bakounine, donnèrent naissance à la propagande par le fait en 1877. Même si la définition que donnait Brousse était assez large, puisque qu’allant de l’insurrection armée, à la manifestation violente. Ce n’est qu’a partir des années 1890, que la propagande par le fait fut associée presque exclusivement aux attentats terroristes. Cependant, il est possible de considérer que la propagande par le fait ne s’arrêtât pas en 1894, avec la fin des attentats, mais au contraire se prolongeât sous une autre forme. Par la suite, l’action directe se poursuivit dans des moyens comme la désobéissance civile, la résistance passive ou encore la non-violence. / The direct action appeared from 1870, under the feather of Bakounine. Bakounine compared it with the “miracles of 1793”. In 1870-1871, the direct action was clearly associated with the terror and directly applied during the Commune of Paris. The anarchists of the Jurassian Federation, strongly inspired by Bakounine, gived birth to the propaganda by the fact in 1877. The anarchists of the Jurassian Federation had been strongly inspired by Bakounine. Even if the definition which gived Brousse was rather wide, because it goes of the armed uprising, in the violent demonstration. It is because has to leave 1890’s, that the propaganda by the fact was almost exclusively associated with terrorist attacks. However, the propaganda by the fact would not stop in 1894, with the end of attacks, but on the contrary would gon on under another shape. Besides the direct action continues in way as civil disobedience, passive resistance or still non-violence.

La Corse figure parmi les zones les plus criminogènes d'Europe alors que ceux qui y vivent, et les touristes qui la visitent, en parlent volontiers comme d'un paradis terrestre. Cette thèse tente d'interroger ce paradoxe en faisant appel aux concepts de la psychanalyse pour ouvrir de nouvelles pistes permettant d'éclairer autrement le phénomène de la violence insulaire dans un débat déjà largement ouvert par les spécialistes des sciences humaines et bien sûr les journalistes. En prenant appui sur la théorie du signifiant élaborée par Jacques Lacan nous analyserons le drapeau, cet emblème qui identifie une communauté à l'international et auxquels les membres de cette communauté s'identifient généralement. Deux versions historiques seront étudiées : celui à tête de Maure et celui à l'effigie de L'Immaculée Conception de la Vierge Marie qui lui succède pendant la révolution pour l'indépendance, en 1735. Cette confrontation permet de soutenir que, si la Corse ne parvient pas à passer de la horde à l'État, c'est en partie en lien avec les signifiants proposés aux insulaires par son héraldique lesquels ne favorisent pas la compréhension des lois exogamiques et donc les passages que constituent les complexes d'OEdipe et de castration. La définition du terrorisme comme « guerre psychologique » justifie le recours à la psychanalyse pour en détecter les ressorts à travers une thématique qu'elle connaît bien : la notion de limite et de franchissement des limites à l'oeuvre dans toutes les formes de terrorisme. / Corsica is one of the most crimogenic areas in Europe, even though the residents and visiting tourists refer to it as an earthly paradise. This dissertation attempts to examine this paradox by calling on concepts of psychoanalysis in order to explore new avenues that may be able to provide insight and otherwise shed light on the phenomenon of insular violence in a debate that is already largely open and discussed by social science specialists and, of course, journalists. Based on the theory of the Signifier, developed by Jacques Lacan, we will analyse the flag, the symbol which identifies a community to the rest of the world and to which members of this community generally identify themselves. Two historical versions will be studied: that of the Saracen's head and the effigy of the lmmaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, which succeeded it during the revolution for independence in 1735. Such a confrontation enables the supposition that if Corsica is unable to pass from mob rule to State rule, this is partly in connection with the signifiers suggested to the islanders by their genealogy which does not encourage the understanding of exogamous laws and thus the routes leading to Oedipus and castration complexes. The definition of terrorism as "psychological war" justifies the use of psychoanalysis to discover its origins by means of a thematic which it is very familiar with: the notion of limits and transgressing limits.

Cette recherche a pour objectif de montrer l’importance des actions des éducateurs de prévention spécialisée (l’OPI : Orientation – Prévention – Insertion) du Neuhof face aux phénomènes de violences. A travers ce travail, nous essayons de déconstruire certaines notions souvent amalgamées par les médias, les hommes politiques, l’opinion publique : violences juvéniles ordinaires, violences urbaines, jeune de quartiers populaires, banlieue, etc. Dans cette thèse, nous portons un intérêt aux dispositifs préventifs contre les violences juvéniles ordinaires/urbaines, la violence sociale (la précarité, etc.) ainsi qu’à leur mise en pratique, et à la distance existant en la matière entre les discours ambiants et la réalité sur le terrain. / The purpose of this research is to show the importance of the actions of the specialist prevention educators (OPI: Orientation - Prevention - Insertion) of the Neuhof against the phenomen a of violence. Through this work, we try to deconstruct certain notions often amalgamated by the media, politicians, public opinion: ordinary juvenile violence, urban violence, young people from suburbs, suburbs, etc.In this thesis, we take an interest in the preventive measures against ordinary / urban juvenile violence, social violence (precariousness, etc.) as well as their implementation and the distance existing in matter between the ambient discourses and the reality in the field.