Threats and international law

: a new exchange currency?

Abstract

The legal figure of prohibition of threat of force contained in article 2(4), the pillar of the UN Charter has been purposed neglected by the legal system and the legal literature which resulted in the instability of the legal system feed by the assumption that norm does not reflect the reality: threats are a mundane instrument of international policy. With a combination of the fragments of jurisprudence regarding this figure and the little and polarized legal literature, the concept and scope of the prohibition can be defined and the couple of threat and use of force is establish. From this assessment the legal status of the figure unveils, and the test of its peremptory status is compared with the new ICL reports on the matter. The attempt of the creation of a clear framework for threats in self-defence reveals that the lack of use of this figure results from the myths among States and the reality that in case of empty threats or cases where the figure materializes into actual use of force poses no danger. As a result, the study unveils the inconsistencies in practice and how this innocuous neglect is jeopardizing the entire legal system and the way States behave.

Date of Award	29 Jul 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	José Azeredo Lopes (Supervisor)