Collective Security - Hardcover

Orakhelashvili, Alexander

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199579849 ISBN 13: 9780199579846

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2011

Over the past one hundred years, the conceptual and legal aspects of collective security have been the subject of much debate. Rapid developments within the United Nations, its precursor the League of Nations, and regional security institutions, as well as the interaction between them, mean this debate has not so far succeeded in capturing the essence and implications of collective security.

These developments in State and institutional practice strike at the heart of the entire system of collective security, which consists of universal, regional, and sub-regional levels, and indicate how the relationship between these various levels should be construed. Although the idea of collective security has raised high political expectations, it has always been based on legal instruments. Consequently, legal principles determine how far the delegated powers of collective security institutions extend and how the competencies of the United Nations relate to those of regional organisations.

This book demonstrates that this inter-level interaction could find its expression in cooperation as well as confrontation between various collective security institutions, and influence the scope of competence of relevant collective security organs. This process then reinforces the concept of the unity of the multi-faceted system of collective security within which no institution has the power to conclusively define or interpret its own competence or that of other institutions. The book's originality lies in its dynamic and decentralised approach that focuses on the interaction between the different levels of collective security and in its comprehensive coverage of all pertinent institutions, competences, and relevant practice.

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Review:

The book is provocative and thoughtprovoking yet the most comprehensive of any in its coverage. The distinctive and original approach adopted by Orakhelashvili will be sure to make it the leading text in the field. The book is also both academic yet instructive in nature thereby opening it up to a broad readership to include not only academics, researchers and students but also practitioners and civil servants. (Christian Henderson, International and Comparative Law Quarterly)

About the Author:

Alexander Orakhelashvili (LLM Leiden, PhD Cantab.) is a Lecturer in Law at the University of Birmingham. He previously taught international law in the Universities of London, Oxford, and Cambridge. His research includes all areas of international law. He has previously published Peremptory Norms in International Law (OUP, 2006) and The Interpretation of Acts and Rules in Public International Law (OUP, 2008) and a wide range of articles in the leading international law journals and yearbooks.

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