The norm of self-defense in international law is so determinedly an inherent right that its precise meaning and justifications are rarely examined. Whatever the general merits of the norm, its retention seems fairly open to question when one sovereign state appears supremely unsecured facing a threat in terms of actual armed attack or imminent threat. This thesis studies the term and the case of a theoretical defense of the norm within the context of the state's use of force in pre-emptive self-defense - anticipatory self-defense. If a defense can be made when the supreme state's self-preservation ...