Beyond Responsibility to Protect: Ceci N'Est Pas Une Pipe

Abstract

This paper explains the structure of and the logic behind the edited collection and argues that, irrespective of whether Responsibility to Protect has aquired normative force within international law, it is a concept that (may) generate(s) change within the order of international law, i.e. it affects positive international law, and has the potential to have further impact beyond the one it has on state sovereignty. Responsibility to Protect marks a transition from self-help to the collective enforcement of rules of international law aiming at protecting interests/values that are common to the entire international community. As a political concept/principle, Responsibility to Protect finds an application in and may be associated with a number of normative tools that are available within the system of international law, such as the principle of due diligence.

Note: This is the introductory chapter to a collective volume on Responsibility to Protect (Intersentia, 2016) co-edited by R.A. Barnes and V.P. Tzevelekos.