ABSTRACT
The intervention by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Kosovo during the spring of 1999 aroused controversy at the time and still provokes questions about the legality of the action, its precedential effect, and procedures for developing new international law. Humanitarian intervention would protect human rights already encompassed by international law and the law of the Charter. The Kosovo intervention reflects the problems of an undeveloped rale of law in a morally dangerous situation. It was actually an "anticipatory humanitarian intervention" based on actions of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia regime and future risks of conflict. Indisputably, the NATO intervention through its bombing campaign violated the UN Charter and international law. If the international community does wish to establish new law permitting humanitarian intervention, it should apply only to situations of widespread and gross violations of human rights and the necessary remedial actions.
