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H. RES. 141 - DISAVOWING THE DOCTRINE OF PRE-EMPTION
Introduced by Ms. Lee (D-CA) on March 12, 2003
Cosponsors This bill expresses the sense of the House of
Representatives to disavow the doctrine of pre-emption.
Resolution Disavowing the doctrine of preemption.
Whereas President Bush has declared in a variety of documents and fora that the
United States has the right to unilaterally exercise military action, including
preemptive nuclear strikes, against nations that have not attacked the United
States, creating what has been termed the `doctrine of preemption';
Whereas the doctrine of preemption contemplates initiating warfare against a
nation that might not pose an imminent threat of harm to the United States and
far exceeds the commonly understood view, set out in the Charter of the United
Nations and recognized in international and United States law, that nations
enjoy the right of self-defense, and that such self-defense might include
undertaking military action to prevent an imminent attack;
Whereas the doctrine of preemption represents a radical departure from the
official position of the United States since the adoption of the Charter of the
United Nations;
Whereas the doctrine of preemption threatens to set a dangerous precedent that
might then be cited by other countries, including other nuclear powers, to
justify preemptive military action against perceived threats;
Whereas United States policy has long recognized the value to our national
security of advancing the respect for and adherence to the international rule of
law;
Whereas actions that diminish the international consensus on normative legal
behavior and leave open the prospect that nations will readily resort to
military force outside of those normative boundaries increase international
instability and undercut the national security interests of the United States;
Whereas the doctrine of preemption contradicts the Charter of the United Nations
to which the United States is a signatory, which, as a result of its
ratification by the United States, is incorporated into United States law, and
which reads, in part, `All members shall refrain in their international
relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or
political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with
the purposes of the United Nations' (Article 2, section 4);
Whereas the Charter of the United Nations, while disallowing preventive war,
does not preclude military actions of self-defense, reading in part, `Nothing in
the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective
self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations,
until the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to maintain
international peace and security' (Article 51); and
Whereas under the United States Constitution, the President, as Commander in
Chief, possesses the authority to use military force to protect the United
States from attack or imminent attack: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That-- (1) it is the
sense of the House of Representatives that the United States possesses the
inherent right to defend itself against imminent or actual attack, as codified
in the Charter of the United Nations and embodied in the traditions of
international law, but that right does not extend to undertaking military
action in the absence of such an imminent or actual attack; and
(2) the House of Representatives disavows the doctrine of
preemption because it poses a threat to international law and to the
national security interests of the United States.
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