Eyffinger, Stephens, & Muller: Self-Defence as a Fundamental Principle

Arthur Eyffinger (JUDICAP), Alan Stephens (Clemens Nathan Research Centre), & Sam Muller (Hague Institute for the Internationalisation of Law) have published Self-Defence as a Fundamental Principle (Hague Academic Press 2009). The table of contents is available here. Here's the abstract:

Within societies, on a national level, self-defence may be used as a defence against the use of force in order to prevent crime against oneself, a fellow human being or even property. Between societies on the international level, self-defence was traditionally linked to the concept of armed attack. However, in today’s world, new forms of aggression, the concept of collective security, and an increasing interaction between national and international law necessitate a reassessment of the concept of self-defence. The first session of the Hague Colloquium on the Fundamental Principles of Law, on the topic of self-defence and honouring Shabtai Rosenne, the first Laureate of the Hague Prize for International Law, brought together experts from both academic and professional circles to debate the notion of self-defence in the world of today. Both the Colloquium and this subsequent publication make a valuable contribution to the development of the law by recognising the sources of the principle of self-defence, and the theories underlying it, by following its path of evolution and by reassessing its current status. The essays are accompanied by a remarkably full and useful bibliography and by documentary materials, many of which are difficult to obtain elsewhere.