Sir, – Gearoid Kilgallen (October 11th) asks what legal authority the US has for its actions in Libya and Somalia.
The only accepted basis for the use of force against the territorial sovereignty of another state is authorisation by the UN Security Council under Chapter VII of the Charter.
Unfortunately, international law is more political than principled, and deadlocks between rival powers on the Security Council mean that countries often bypass it as an ineffective forum.
This does not mean that the illegal actions of some states are justified but it does show us that we need to reform the Security Council and remove the veto of the permanent members. – Yours, etc,
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COLM KELLY
LLB (Dub), LLM Candidate,
Christ’s College,
Cambridge, England.