The legality of pre-emptive self-defence The Master's thesis deals with one of the key issues of current international law, the right to pre-emptive self-defence. The work is divided into six parts, including introduction, four chapters and conclusion. After an introductory part the first chapter deals with the sources of international laws regulating the right to self-defence, their system and the way in which they interact with each other. This chapter seeks to analyse the impact of those sources on the development of right to pre-emptive self-defence. The main attention is devoted to the primary and secondary sources of international law regulating the right to self-defence, such as the U.N. Charter, customary international law, the judicial decisions of the International Court of Justice and the teachings of the most highly qualified publicists. The second chapter first focuses on the concept of classical self-defence. It then goes on to examine the two traditional doctrinal approaches to the interpretation of the scope of the right to self-defence, the restrictive school of thoughts and the extensive school of thoughts. The next chapter relates to the prohibition of the use of force under international law. The last chapter first analyses the concept of pre-emptive self-defence from the...

The Master's Paper analyses the scope of the right to self-defence under international law. The Author seeks to present a thorough evaluation of the provisions of the United Nations Charter, the rules formed in the customary international law, the jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice as well as the state practice in respect of the implementation conditions of the right to self-defence.The Paper also focuses on the analysis of the theory of preventive self-defence undergoing the formation process as well as on the disclosure of the predicted negative entailments attached to its legalisation.

The first efforts to formulate the norms banning the use of force were reflected in the 1928 Kellogg–Briand pact. In the contemporary international law, prohibition of force has gained an extremely immense significance with the balance of powers changing and the processes of globalisation picking up pace. Emerging threats and the legal character of how different states respond to them is one of the most pressing topics of today’s international law. Obviously, the authors of the Charter could not have foreseen the modern challenges for the international peace and security, like the threat of weapons of mass destruction and the terrorism. The peacekeeping forces, the peace agenda, the humanitarian intervention have come to be the new examples of response to the contemporary challenges for the international peace and security and of a flexible practical application of the Charter’s provisions.