‘The prohibition of the use of force is a peremptory norm of law that was
enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, after having been
incompletely enunciated in the Covenant of the League of Nations and
then in the Briand Kellogg Pact’. Declined in various forms, this is the
account found in the vast majority of contemporary doctrine. In her
book, Agatha Verdebout not only questions the relevance of this narrative
of ‘indifference’ (i.e., the use of force would have been neither
prohibited nor authorized by international law) but also explains its
emergence and success.
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