ARTICLE REVIEW

Article Review

Article Review

Brief overview of the article

The article The “Humanitarian Exception” and the Problems of Abuse in the Case of Iraq' by Alex Bellamy (2004) explores and investigates the decision which was taken to invade Iraq. It emphasizes on the statement that, when is it morally justifiable, that in order to change an oppressive foreign regime, the use of force is required. The article takes the events of 20th march 2003, when the United States of America and its allies which included Australia and the United Kingdom, with a series of missile and bomb attacks, began 'Operation Iraqi Freedom' on Baghdad. This war was basically aimed at decapitating the Iraqi Leadership. This article uses the case of Iraq in order to assess whether the positive international law conservative interpretations can be over ridden by upholding the elements of natural law and the Humanitarian Exception. As mentioned in the article that the author agrees with some of the advocates of war that positive international law's conservative interpretations does not fully cover the whole spectrum of moral reasoning on the issues peace and war matters, and as a result, the article states that the legal positivists arguments and the natural law should also be understood as a complementary set of idea when it comes to deciding whether the war is really necessary. Therefore the article concludes that legal positivists strictly limits the right for justifying the Iraqi invasion, even though the natural law may open some space for justifying it on Humanitarian terms.

Analysis of the Article's strengths and weaknesses

The author has considered both of the perspectives before summing it up to a conclusion. The article supports the United Nations condemning this act and calling the war “unjustifiable”. Moreover, there were no compensation for the lost lives and even after the new President ...