“War is the negation of law”, Luigi Ferrajoli

Although international peace and security have been established as the two central objectives of the United Nations since its creation after World War II, armed conflicts continue to arise everywhere, as demonstrated by the historic tension between Israel and Hamas. The international community has not done much to unequivocally prohibit war and uphold the idea of peace, as Luigi Ferrajoli has argued.

War, according to the distinguished Italian professor, is the negation of law and, therefore, also of constitutional rights. As long as there are armed conflicts and a significant loss of human lives, globalization and global governance are failing as significant human constructs. But even more, their designers, operators, and implementers are failing.

The globalization of law and human rights should be the most eloquent dimension of global integration. The process of globalization has historically been characterized as a linear, one-directional process that privileges its economic and financial aspects over its legal, political, cultural, and environmental nature.

International pacts, treaties, and agreements on human rights should be not only documentary but practical epicenters of a global institutionality reflected in authentic guarantee systems for the effective protection of rights and freedoms. War injures humanity as a whole and demonstrates that solidarity is beyond the cultural reach necessary for social progress.

Now more than ever, cooperative governance must be pursued as a mechanism for ensuring that the exercise of power takes into account the opinion of civil society and that actions attacking peace and the social system are severely punished. Otherwise, war will continue to reproduce itself, rendering constitutional rights mere ornaments in the discourse of politicians rather than a reality.

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