Abstract

On 19 March 2011, NATO powers initiated an aerial military campaign in Libya in response to human rights violations associated with the Libyan civil war. For more than seven months, NATO powers and their allies enforced a UN Security Council no-fly zone over Libya by attacking the ground forces of Muammar Gaddafi. The campaign ended on the 31st of October, 2011, in the aftermath of the toppling and death of Gaddafi. This paper analyzes the intervention from an international law perspective. We conclude that despite efforts to expand the parameters established by the United Nations Charter on the use of force, most notably the doctrines of humanitarian intervention and Responsibility to Protect (R2P), prevailing international law does not allow for extra-Charter intervention. Since the relevant Security Council resolutions did not authorize intervention for purposes other than to enforce a no-fly zone and protect civilian populations, the 2011 NATO intervention was not legal. Implications of the NATO intervention in Libya for the further development of the international law of war are also considered.