The dark lawmaking of human security

Abstract

It may conceivably be argued that human security constitutes a lawmaking facet of international security but has been largely cast in shadow whilst the primary international security focus has been directed toward State security. In that sense, it may be indicated that State security – akin to matter – has been a visible lawmaking component of international security; whereas human security – akin to ‘dark matter’ – has been essentially non-visible and thus largely a ‘dark’ lawmaking component of international security. Hence, if the existence of ‘dark matter’ can be demonstrated because visible matter does not have sufficient gravitational muster to hold galaxies together, then the existence of human security as a ‘dark’ lawmaking component of international security may feasibly be determined because State security evidently does not have sufficient lawmaking gravity to effectively maintain contemporary international security. It may thus conceivably be posited that State security cannot hold the ‘international security galaxies’ together – they would tear themselves apart. Hence, something that cannot be detected directly gives these international legal regimes extra mass, generating the extra ‘lawmaking gravity’ they need to stay intact: ‘dark’ human security. Accordingly, it may be argued that contemporary international security cannot effectively operate or be maintained without the ‘dark’ lawmaking of human security. Hence, the present study will examine the function of human security as a ‘dark’ lawmaking connector within and between three intersecting regimes or ‘galaxies’ of international law closely concerned with international security, namely: the jus ad bellum; the jus in bello; and the jus post bellum, represented in this study principally by international criminal law.