“Pravova derzhava”. Issue 36 (2025), pages 755–765.
DOI: 10.33663/0869-2491-2025-36-755-765
Hrynyshyn Mykhailo
Genesis of the 1974 Definition of Aggression and its Significance for the Development of International Law
Introduction. The interrelated political factors that determined the essence of a new period in the evolution of the understanding of aggression — 1969–1974 — were the détente in international relations and the largely formally completed process of decolonization. A legal factor was, in particular, the signing of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969, which confirmed the understanding of the provisions of the UN Charter, including the prohibition of aggression, as mandatory norms and obligations of member states to the world community. The aim of the article is to examine the process of formation of new approaches to the concept of aggression in the 1969-1974, which led to the adoption of the 1974 Definition of Aggression, and to analyze the content of this act and its use in the activities of international organizations and the International Court of Justice. Methods. The research methodology is based on a combination of genetic, dialectical, and hermeneutic methods. Conclusions. The 1974 Definition of Aggression became the result of thirty years of development of the relevant issue in international law, despite all the imperfections and extreme politicization of the process of preparation of this document. It was able to reintegrate previously developed but dispersed elements of aggression into a single complex. But at the same time, it embodied a narrow understanding of this phenomenon based on the criterion of the scale of the use of force, and included ambiguous and contradictory elements that were deliberately left as such to reach a compromise. There is no reason to underestimate the Definition of Aggression. In the fifty years since its adoption, humanity has not been able to agree on a better act, and this document still forms the basis for the definition of aggression in international law.
Key words: aggression, war of aggression, codification of international law, unlawful use of force, International Court of Justice.
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