ABSTRACT
The revitalization of collective security after 1990 initiated a renaissance of peace ethics. In particular cases like Srebrenica, Somalia, Rwanda, Afghanistan and now Iraq gave rise to ethical considerations which before September 11, 2001 concentrated on the establishment of ethical criteria to judge so-called "humanitarian interventions". The prevailing perception of modern international law in ethical debates seems to be that of a rudimentary, incomplete, uncertain, highly politicised and unsufficiently institutionalized set of rules at the disposal of States. The concept of peace through law can neither be reduced to one single source nor can it be derived from one single philosophical tradition. In order to reconstruct the Charter's concept of peace through international law, a fresh look into both its history of ideas and its legal history is called for to shed some light on the leading experiences and different elements which formed it.
