Assessing the legality of coalition air strikes targeting the Islamic state in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) in Syria under international law

Abstract

In August 2014 the United States of America (hereinafter the US) built a coalition of partner countries to target the terrorist group ‘Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant’ (hereinafter ISIS) in the Middle East.1 On 10 September 2014 US President Barack Obama announced that the coalition would target ISIS in Syria and Iraq and designated ISIS the ‘greatest’ threat.2 He also reasoned, if the ISIS terrorists were ‘left unchecked’, they ‘could pose a growing threat beyond that region, including being a threat to the United States’.3 The US highlighted that the coalition would be fighting ISIS ‘in accordance with the inherent right of individual and collective self-defence, as reflected in article 51’ of the United Nations Charter (hereinafter the Charter).