ABSTRACT
The discussion among public international lawyers concerning the problem of failed states also addresses the specific consequences of this 'new' phenomenon for the duty of nonintervention and the prohibition to use force. Immanuel Kant is frequently cited as a defender of state integrity precluding any right of intervention. Kant seems to be very explicit on the duty of non-intervention. Kant defines equality in state law as a feature of any citizen who recognizes 'no-one among the people as superior to himself, unless it be someone whom he is just as morally entitled to bind by law as the other is to bind him'. Citizens are only entitled to bind others if this entitlement is mutual, reciprocal. Many Kant interpreters think that an unconditional duty of nonintervention is incompatible with basic tenets of Kantian moral theory: by neglecting that one is confronted with evil, one may become an instrument of this evil.
