Book Review

Abstract

International law-making is a broad and ongoing process of co-operation and communication between and among states and international organisations. In that sense, treaties and other international agreements written between sovereign states or between states and international organizations, and custom that evidenced general practice of states produce international law which becomes binding upon all states and international organizations.1 Hence, international lawmaking is a process that concerns both customary international law and treaty making. The recent changes in state practice by using remote warfare methods with increased public knowledge of covert operations have made it necessary to reconceive the concept of publicity in international law-making. Publicity in International Law-making: Covert Operations and the Use of Force by Marie Aronsson-Storrier tackles the publicity for state practice to answer a wide range of questions about the ways in which covert and quasi-covert acts of states influence the development of customary international law. Noteworthy is that while the book’s title refers to lawmaking in general, including thus law-making by means of treaties, the author engages in a stimulating discussion of the role of publicity in the development of ‘customary international law’. The reader might expect more accurate title, which simply identifies the work and its central argument. Aronsson-Storrier has addressed these questions as part of her PhD research. The book is an insightful study in which the author elaborately discusses that states’ publicly known and acknowledged operations are the essential dual requirements for identifying the relevant practice by states as a conduct that will require other states to react.2 The book’s central concern is to reconceive international law-making on the strength of increased reporting and legal debate around covert and quasi-covert use of force. The book is divided into four substantive chapters, followed by concluding remarks. Chapter 2 sets out the conceptual framework and development of the law on the use of force that will inform the rest of the book, giving special prominence to the role of publicity requirement in making international law. Having discussed ‘the prohibition of the use of force’ under Article 2(4) and ‘right to use force’ under Article 51 of the UN Charter, Aronsson-Storrier highlights the challenges that arises from ambiguous nature of these rules and the absence of a certain definition of the ‘force’ and ‘armed attack’. She rightly argues that unacknowledged targeted killings and covert