Publicity in International Lawmaking Covert Operations and the Use of Force

This book explores how best to recalibrate our understanding of international lawmaking through the lens of increased reporting and legal debate around covert and quasi-covert uses of force. Recent changes in practice and communication call for closer attention to be paid to the requirement of publicity for state practice, since they challenge the perception of the concepts 'public' and 'covert', and thus raise questions as to the impact that covert and quasi-covert acts do and should have on the development of international law. It is argued that, in order to qualify as such practice, acts must be both publicly known and acknowledged. The book further examines how state silence around covert and quasi-covert operations has opened up significant space for legal scholars and other experts to influence the development of international law.

Introduction; 2. The use of force and the scope for dynamic development; 3. Customary international law and the requirement of publicity; 4. Quasi-covert operations and the identification of claims; 5. Unacknowledged operations; 6. Concluding remarks.

Marie Aronsson-Storrier is a lecturer at the School of Law, University of Reading. She holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne (2017) and a Master of Laws from the University of Gothenburg (2011). Marie is one of the editors of the Cambridge Handbook of Disaster Risk Reduction in International Law (2019) and has published in numerous areas of international law, including the law on the use of force, human rights, disaster prevention and management, and international lawmaking.