Defining aggression is a task to which the nations of the world have now devoted exactly half a century.
It was in 1923, in connection with the draft Treaty of Mutual Assistance, that the question of the definition of aggression first acquired a particular international significance.
Since then this question has never been absent from the preoccupations of jurists.
In the following study, B. Ferencz points out the possibility of a consensus based on the results obtained up to now. His proposal for a compromise definition could have been the conclusion drawn by a computer from all the work of the Special Committee. We join with the author in expressing the hope “that the essence of the compromise suggested herein will prove acceptable by consensus at this time of relative detente, and will thereby mark at least some progress in the requisite clarification of the law of nations”.
This constructive effort could be of great help to those who will have to bring the final touches and precision to the existing drafts.
definition of aggression-analysis brief-1973-eng (full text in English, PDF)