Book Reviews Paye, Olivier. Sauve qui veut? Le droit international face aux crises humanitaires. Brussels: Bruylant and Éditions de l’université de Bruxelles, 1996. Pp. 313. In this interesting volume Olivier Paye, assistant professor at the University of Brussels, examines the present state of international humanitarian law. The author begins by exploring the international law of humanitarian assistance in the first two chapters. The presentation is structured around the rights and duties of the assistant states and the assistees (i.e. the territorial sovereigns that benefit from humanitarian assistance). The primacy of the state – a ‘classical’ postulate – is the cornerstone on which Mr. Paye bases his analysis. This is particularly obvious in the first section of the second chapter, where it is emphasized that no assistance is possible without the express consent of the assistee. One may question this rather drastic thesis. Yet it is probably the view which best reflects the current rules of international law as well as the realities of the international society. This choice becomes even more evident in the two chapters devoted to the international law of humanitarian intervention. Here, the opinion advocated by the author can be expressed in two simple sentences: first, no humanitarian reason may justify the use of force against another state (except, of course, if the said state consents). Second, only the United Nations (and, more particularly, the Security Council) may resort to armed intervention in order to solve humanitarian issues. Here again, one can only concur with these conclusions for they are visibly detached from oversimplistic ideological options and are inspired by a realistic observation of the international society and its constraints. Yet, as a result of this realistic approach, the book suggests a dilemma – well known to most international lawyers – which the author fails to address: If the legitimate use of force belongs to the UN and the UN is apparently unable to efficiently exercise that prerogative, is there really an international law of humanitarian intervention? Despite this slight reservation, the book is worth reading. Its main positive quality – apart from being a rigorously documented and quite comprehensive inventory – is to draw a clear semantic line between the law and the pseudo-legal farrago which improperly, and much too often, mixes legal language with a large dose of demagogy and wishful thinking. Indeed, and as deplorable as this may be, the so-called right of humanitarian intervention is not a legal category. Frank Attar Paris, France
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