The Gulf Conflict, International Law, and the United Nations
This paper will discuss international law issues concerning the involvement of the United Nations in the Persian Gulf Conflict of 1990/91, particularly those issues dealing with the use of force. The first part of the paper will briefly discuss the background of the Gulf Crisis. The second part of the paper will examine the international law concerning the use of force, focusing primarily upon the provisions in the United Nations Charter. The third part of the paper will discuss how these provisions were applied in the Gulf Crisis. The fourth and fifth parts of the paper will briefly look at some of the legal issues concerning the economic sanctions imposed upon Iraq, the reparations provided for in the cease-fire agreement, the possibility of war crimes prosecutions, and the aid provided to the Kurds in Iraq.
The disputes between Iraq and Kuwait which led to the Iraqi invasion in August of 1990 were several and longstanding. Although Saddam Hussein claimed that Iraq's status as a sovereign entity extended back to ancient times, both Iraq and Kuwait were actually carved out of the incoherent mess left by the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War. The British attempted to instill a feeling of national cohesion in the competing groups by creating a new "monarchy." This Iraqi Hashemite Kingdom was overthrown in a 1958 military coup, and replaced by the Ba'ath Party.
Kuwait was technically a part of the Basrah province of the Ottoman Empire until the First World War, but it was ruled by a Sheikh who maintained some independence from the Ottomans and who sided with the British during the War. It was granted independent protectorate status by the British before the Ottoman Empire was dismantled, and before Iraq was mandated to the British Empire by the League of Nations. Kuwait became independent in 1961, at which time Iraq declared th...