IV 
110TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 23 
Disavowing the doctrine of preemption. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 4, 2007 
Ms. LEE submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Disavowing the doctrine of preemption. 
Whereas President Bush has declared in a variety of docu-
ments and fora that the United States has the right to 
unilaterally exercise military action, including preemptive 
nuclear strikes, against nations that have not attacked 
the United States, creating what has been termed the 
‘‘doctrine of preemption’’; 
Whereas the doctrine of preemption contemplates initiating 
warfare against a nation that might not pose an immi-
nent threat of harm to the United States and far exceeds 
the commonly understood view, set out in the Charter of 
the United Nations and recognized in international and 
United States law, that nations enjoy the right of self- 
defense, and that such self-defense might include under-
taking military action to prevent an imminent attack; 
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•HRES 23 IH 
Whereas the doctrine of preemption represents a radical de-
parture from the official position of the United States 
since the adoption of the Charter of the United Nations; 
Whereas the doctrine of preemption threatens to set a dan-
gerous precedent that might then be cited by other coun-
tries, including other nuclear powers, to justify preemp-
tive military action against perceived threats; 
Whereas United States policy has long recognized the value 
to our national security of advancing the respect for and 
adherence to the international rule of law; 
Whereas actions that diminish the international consensus on 
normative legal behavior and leave open the prospect that 
nations will readily resort to military force outside of 
those normative boundaries increase international insta-
bility and undercut the national security interests of the 
United States; 
Whereas the doctrine of preemption contradicts the Charter 
of the United Nations to which the United States is a 
signatory, which, as a result of its ratification by the 
United States, is incorporated into United States law, 
and which reads, in part, ‘‘All members shall refrain in 
their international relations from the threat or use of 
force against the territorial integrity or political inde-
pendence of any state, or in any other manner incon-
sistent with the purposes of the United Nations’’ (Article 
2, section 4); 
Whereas the Charter of the United Nations, while disallowing 
preventive war, does not preclude military actions of self- 
defense, reading in part, ‘‘Nothing in the present Charter 
shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective 
self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member 
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•HRES 23 IH 
of the United Nations, until the Security Council has 
taken the measures necessary to maintain international 
peace and security’’ (Article 51); and 
Whereas under the United States Constitution, the President, 
as Commander in Chief, possesses the authority to use 
military force to protect the United States from attack 
or imminent attack: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That— 
(1) it is the sense of the House of Representa-
tives that the United States possesses the inherent 
right to defend itself against imminent or actual at-
tack, as codified in the Charter of the United Na-
tions and embodied in the traditions of international 
law, but that right does not extend to undertaking 
military action in the absence of such an imminent 
or actual attack; and 
(2) the House of Representatives disavows the 
doctrine of preemption because it poses a threat to 
international law and to the national security inter-
ests of the United States. 
Æ 
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