The US armed Intervention in Venezuela: all is not lost for international law (yet)

Having reviewed the principal legal issues arising from the United States’ intervention in Venezuela, and the absence of any plausible justification under international law, the Author situates these events within the broader crisis affecting the multilateral legal order. Subversive actors driven by unilateral conceptions of their narrowly defined national interests, and displaying open disregard for the rule of law, are inflicting successive and potentially devastating blows on what remains of the multilateral system. The challenge is both profound and perilous. It calls for a clear, coherent, and resolute response from the wider international community, and all the more so from the European Union (EU), in light of its asserted role as a promoter of international law – a role that both its Member States and the EU itself have played inconsistently. Against this troubling backdrop, human rights, and the foundational normative value they embody, remain a steadfast and indispensable bulwark.