THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS ON SELF-DEFENSE IN INTERNATIONAL LAW

Attempts to legitimize war have been made since ancient times. In ancient Greece, for example, war was considered legitimate for the winners. Nowadays, the old Latin phrase “jus ad bellum”**, in whose name states have frequently engaged in warfare, has been abolished. As a result, the UN Charter has established a complex system for the sanctioning of the aggressor state, designed to ensure and restore the international rule of law by putting an end to acts of violence and minimizing their consequences. Self-defense is a right the states may exercise under well-established conditions and limitations only. With respect to nations that are dominated by foreign states and are therefore seeking to gain their independence and exercise their legitimate rights by all means, including by war, it has been established that the use of armed force by the dominator-states is an act of aggression forbidden by the international rule of law. The non-aggression principle is basically the one that has turned international law from a law of war into a law of peace, to the point where war is considered today as the most serious international crime.