The Current Status of Humanitarian Intervention in Need of Legal Clarification. Analysis of the Legal and Humanitarian Justifications for Intervening In Libya and the Inaction in Syria

Master's Thesis from the year 2014 in the subject Law - European and International Law, Intellectual Properties, grade: DISTINCTION, University of Hertfordshire (Faculty of Law), course: International Law, language: English, abstract: In this thesis, the concepts of Sovereignty, non-intervention and Humanitarian Intervention will gradually be unveiled, especially in subsequent chapters. The cases of Syria and Libya will serve as watershed for the theoretically unveiled concepts. The principle of State Sovereignty plays a great role in the formation of international law as it sets a basic foundation on which the international society is built. The natural supposition is that international order is best maintained if states respect one another's sovereignty by adhering to the norms of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other states. The modern idea of Sovereignty dates back to Ancient Rome in which all sovereign powers were bestowed on the Emperor. It was deemed an absolute, unified, inalienable power based upon a voluntary but irrevocable contract.