Notes on the effectivity of law and international security (lessons from Ukraine)

The article seeks to show that, contrary to what can be stated from a realistic position in International Relations Theory, International Law effectively influences the conduct of States, even in extreme situations related to their own security. The law does not grant a pre-established substantive response to each factual situation, but it imposes international actors the realisation of a process of justification of their behaviour. The identities and interests of the States are not defined in advance, but are built in this process of justification. In the same process, the perception that States have about which situations constitute threats to their security is built.