Skip to main content

Aggression

  • Reference work entry
Encyclopedia of Global Justice
  • 171 Accesses

A great part of global justice must concern itself with the use of force, especially the aggressive use of force. In the quest for global justice and international governance, one strategy is to impose legal constraints on the use of force by outlawing acts and wars of aggression. Unfortunately, a workable definition of “aggression” for this purpose in international law has proven problematic.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, there was no globally accepted norm prohibiting the resort to war. As the century progressed, there began a process of limiting the conditions under which States could legitimately resort to warfare. Thus, the 1907 Hague Convention (II) completely prohibited resort to war to enforce recovery of contract debts, while Hague Convention (III) required that States give explicit warning before commencing armed hostilities. The Versailles Treaty (1919) recognized the obligation of States to refrain from resort to war, and to pursue open, just, and honorable...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 679.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 549.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

Documents

Books

  • Detter I (2000) The law of war, 2nd edn. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Dinstein Y (2005) War, aggression, and self-defence, vol 4. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Gray C (2000) International law and the use of force. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • May L (2008) Aggression and crimes against peace. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this entry

Cite this entry

Scheid, D.E. (2011). Aggression. In: Chatterjee, D.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Justice. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9160-5_733

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9160-5_733

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-9159-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-9160-5

  • eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law

Publish with us

Policies and ethics