This article considers the relationship between international law and the UN Security Council. Th... more This article considers the relationship between international law and the UN Security Council. The practical power of the Council is constituted at the intersection of its legal framing, its political legitimacy, and the interests of powerful states. This sometimes means the Council has less power than is assigned to it by the UN Charter, but it often means that it has more. It is clear that the Council sits within the international legal system, the legal limits on its action are interpreted in light of prior Council practice, and thus the meaning of ‘compliance’ and ‘violation’ of the Charter changes over time. Some transgressions of the Charter are understood as informal amendments to it; others are seen as threats to international peace and se- curity that impel enforcement action. This ambiguity in the law and practice of the United Nations is inherent in the idea of the ‘international rule of law’. The Council straddles the unstable boundary between international law and politics, both undermining and reinforcing the distinction between them.
Abstract The UN's sanctions against Libya became an issue of great contro-versy in the Secur... more Abstract The UN's sanctions against Libya became an issue of great contro-versy in the Security Council in the 1990s owing to competing interpretations of the central legal norms of international relations+ The norms of due process, the presump-tion of innocence, and respect for ...
... For each method, we could reason-ably expect an equivocal result for which we could not expla... more ... For each method, we could reason-ably expect an equivocal result for which we could not explain the signifi cance. What would it mean if we found that a rule of internationallaw is followed 70 percent of the time? (or 20 percent? ...
This article considers the relationship between international law and the UN Security Council. Th... more This article considers the relationship between international law and the UN Security Council. The practical power of the Council is constituted at the intersection of its legal framing, its political legitimacy, and the interests of powerful states. This sometimes means the Council has less power than is assigned to it by the UN Charter, but it often means that it has more. It is clear that the Council sits within the international legal system, the legal limits on its action are interpreted in light of prior Council practice, and thus the meaning of ‘compliance’ and ‘violation’ of the Charter changes over time. Some transgressions of the Charter are understood as informal amendments to it; others are seen as threats to international peace and se- curity that impel enforcement action. This ambiguity in the law and practice of the United Nations is inherent in the idea of the ‘international rule of law’. The Council straddles the unstable boundary between international law and politics, both undermining and reinforcing the distinction between them.
Abstract The UN's sanctions against Libya became an issue of great contro-versy in the Secur... more Abstract The UN's sanctions against Libya became an issue of great contro-versy in the Security Council in the 1990s owing to competing interpretations of the central legal norms of international relations+ The norms of due process, the presump-tion of innocence, and respect for ...
... For each method, we could reason-ably expect an equivocal result for which we could not expla... more ... For each method, we could reason-ably expect an equivocal result for which we could not explain the signifi cance. What would it mean if we found that a rule of internationallaw is followed 70 percent of the time? (or 20 percent? ...
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