Acta Universitatis Carolinae Iuridica (AUCI) is the main journal of the Faculty of Law of Charles University. It has been published since 1954 and is one of the traditional law journals with a theoretical focus.
As a general law journal, it publishes longer studies and shorter articles on any relevant issues in legal theory and international, European and national law. AUCI also publishes material relating to current legislative issues. AUCI is a peer-reviewed journal and accepts submissions from both Czech and international authors. Contributions by foreign authors are published in their original language – Slovak, English, German, French.
AUCI is a theoretical journal for questions of state and law. It is published by Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Law, through Karolinum Press. It is published four times a year, the dates of publication can be found here.
Articles published in AUCI undergo an independent peer review process, which is anonymous on both sides. Reviewers from the field give their opinion on the scientific quality of the paper and the suitability of publication in the journal. In the case of comments, the opinion is sent back to the author with the possibility of revising the text (see Guidelines for Authors – Per Review Process for more details).
The AUCI journal (ISSN 0323-0619) is registered in the Czech National Bibliography (kept by the National Library of the Czech Republic) and in the Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (kept by the American Association of Law Libraries). AUCI has been assigned a periodical registration number MK E 18585.
In 2021 the journal AUCI was the first journal of the Faculty of Law of Charles University to be included in the prestigious international database Scopus. This Elsevier database is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature in the world. The editors of the journal expect from the inclusion in the elite Scopus database not only an increase in the readership of the journal, but also an increase in interest in the publication of papers by both Czech and foreign authors.
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AUC IURIDICA, Vol 51 No 3 (2005), 77–118
Preemptivní a preventivní sebeobrana z pohledu mezinárodního práva
[Pre-emptive and Preventive Self-Defence Under International Law]
Veronika Bílková
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14712/23366478.2025.88
published online: 14. 02. 2025
abstract
The article deals with the conceptions of pre-emptive and preventive self-defence, i.e. the unilateral use of force against the threat of armed attack that is imminent (pre-emption) or rather hypothetical and remote in time (prevention). The first part presents several factors that make the research of the given conceptions and the scholar discussion thereof uneasy. These factors include terminological division, plurality of conceptual and methodological standpoints, and confusion between self-defence and other similar institutes of international law (reprisals, state of necessity). The second part maps the chronological evolution of the international legal regulation de lege lata of pre-emptive and preventive self-defence. Dividing this evolution into four subsequent periods (the period before 1945, the year 1945, the Cold War and the period after 1990), it pays attention for each of them to the existing normative acts, state practice as well as doctrinal opinions. It terminates by concluding that the regulation has remained almost constant in all the relevant periods: while pre-emptive self-defence, subject to certain strict conditions, has been considered legal, preventive self-defence has been (because of the high risk of misuse and the possibility to deal with distant threats by means of collective security system) seen as unlawful. The new threats, including terrorism, rogue states and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, have not so far changed this state of affairs, although there seems to be a growing willingness to tolerate certain preventive acts directed against terrorist networks. The third part of the article enlists and analyses criteria of the legal use of force in pre-emptive self-defence, namely those of imminence, necessity, proportionality and the cooperation with the UN Security Council. The article ends up with a short reflection de lege ferenda upon the eventual legalisation of preventive self-defence that it sees as neither convenient nor legally acceptable.
keywords: Self-defence; pre-emption; prevention; use of force,; collective security; terrorism; weapons of mass destruction; rogue states; armed attack; imminence; necessity; proportionality
Preemptivní a preventivní sebeobrana z pohledu mezinárodního práva is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
230 x 157 mm
periodicity: 4 x per year
print price: 65 czk
ISSN: 0323-0619
E-ISSN: 2336-6478
