Dissenting Opinion of Justice Radhabinod Pal on the Notion of Aggressive War: A Critical Evaluation

• Author: Shuvra Dey
• Pages: 213-214

Notion of Aggressive War 213

VIII JEAIL 1 (2015)

Shuvra Dey∗

Tokyo trial experienced a judgment circumscribed for a long period for publication

during allied occupation years. This is Justice Pal’s dissenting judgment at the

     ‘aggression’ not

only considering subjective ends, rather extends beyond that. The present paper does

not intend to justify the judgment which exceeds author’s competence, but also tries

to extract the notion of aggression where Justice Radhabinod Pal is experimental.

Where all acts are not act of aggression, the main concern is to segregate the concept

of act of war and the act of aggression. Assertion becomes crucial when certain use

of force can be legitimized under sovereign right of self-defense. This paper tends to

clarify these ambiguities concerning the notion of aggression relying on Justice Pal’s

opinion. Firstly, a progressive attempt has been made to identify the extent of use of

force under sovereign right of self-defense, overriding that extent may tantamount to

aggression. Then possible means have been drawn to limit the concept of aggression.

Finally, the paper would shed brief light on the comparison of Justice Pal’s dissenting

opinion with contemporaneous legal framework predominantly concerning the notion

of aggression.

Keywords

Tokyo Trial, Dissenting Opinion, Act of Aggression, Act of War, Self-

defense, Use of Force, Objective Test, Customary Norm.

Dissenting Opinion of

Justice Radhabinod Pal on

the Notion of Aggressive

War: A Critical Evaluation

∗ LL.M. candidate at South Asian University, New Delhi, India. B.A. (Stamford Univ., Bangladesh), ELL.M.(Rajshahi

Univ., Bangladesh). ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6100-8362. Much gratitude is extended to Professor

Srinivas Burra (South Asian University) for his valuable suggestion. Views and errors, if any, are solely the author’s

responsibility. The author may be contacted at: dshuvro15@yahoo.com / Address: Akbar Bhawan, Chanakyapuri, New

Delhi 110 021 India.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14330/jeail.2015.8.1.10

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