Proposed Amendment by Veterans For Peace




JOINT RESOLUTION PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), that the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States, shall be valid to all intends and purposes as a part of the Constitution:

    Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, we the people of the United States forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat of use of force as means of settling international disputes.

    In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained, except for use in direct defense of its domestic territory against clear and imminent threat or aggression.  The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.

    Recognizing that conflict is part of the human condition, the United States will henceforth work in cooperation with the United Nations, The World Court, and all other relevant international institutions, and all other nations to resolve its international conflicts with non-violent means under international rules-of-law, as it does its domestic conflicts under national rules-of-law.

    Any provisions of the United States Constitution that are in conflict with this war-renunciation amendment are hereby rendered null and void.

    The Congress shall have the power to enact appropriate legislation to give effect to this amendment.