On legitimate defences and their patron saints
Featured articles By: Marsares20 March 2009 1:28 COT
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“…hitting terrorists who attack systematically the people of a country, no matter they are not inside its territory, is an act of legitimate defence”
Juan Manuel Santos
Minister of Defence of Colombia

Juan Manuel Santos at the event Colombia: Hostage Rescue & What Lies Ahead, held 23 July 2008 in Washington (Photo: Center for American Progress vía Flickr, CC-BY-SA licence)
Even though the premise is simple and it is based on an ancient institution —if I’m attacked, I have the right to defend myself—, its development is complex. It is not enough, as minister Santos, together with President Uribe[1], that there is an armed enemy which puts the survival of the State at risk and which is taking shelter abroad, to pursue it and wipe it out.
It is not a matter of discussion the right the State has to chase inside its borders anyone who commits a crime and, if that were the case, to subdue it through force, sticking to the law. But that right becomes exceptional when criminals seek shelter abroad.
One of the mainstays in the international legal order is State sovereignty. Accordingly, every State must have its territory, its institutions and, of course, its inhabitants respected. But it also admits exceptions because that is not a leeway for committing crimes at the expense of others.
There are extreme situations which can lead to such exceptions, as when a State becomes a threat against the others. In this case, those affected can intervene in it but through a multilateral organization, such as the UN, for example, where the case should be studied and the proper decision should be made.
Several tools exist in order to made the troublesome State to have recourse to the international rules. From censorship motions, condemnations in international courts, economical embargoes, expelling from supranational organisms or even armed intervention through multinational troops.










