Peace and Security
Security Council
The Interpretation of Security Council Resolutions
A. Legal Instruments
Charter of the United Nations and Statute of the International Court of Justice, San Francisco, 26 June 1945.
Geneva Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, Geneva, 12 August 1949, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75, p. 287.
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, New York, 16 December 1966, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 999, p. 171.
Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, Vienna, 23 May 1969, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1155, p. 331.
Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties between States and International Organizations or between International Organizations, Vienna, 21 March 1986.
Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Report of the Secretary-General pursuant to paragraph 2 of Security Council resolution 808 (1993) (S/25704), 3 May 1993.
Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Security Council resolution 955 (1994) of 8 November 1994.
International Law Commission, Guiding Principles applicable to unilateral declarations of States capable of creating legal obligations, 2006.
B. Jurisprudence
International
International Court of Justice, Frontier Dispute (Burkina Faso v. Republic of Mali), Judgment of 22 December 1986, I.C.J. Reports 1986, p. 554.
International Court of Justice, Fisheries Jurisdiction (Spain v. Canada), Judgment of 4 December 1998, I.C.J. 1998, p. 432.
International Court of Justice, Accordance with International Law of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in Respect of Kosovo, Advisory Opinion of 22 July 2010, I.C.J. Reports 2010, p. 403.
International Court of Justice, Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, Advisory Opinion of 8 July 1996, I.C.J. Reports 1996, p. 226.
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Prosecutor v. Milošević, Decision on Preliminary Motions, 8 November 2001.
International Court of Justice, Case Concerning Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Uganda), Judgment of 19 December 2005, I.C.J. Reports 2005, p. 168.
European Court of Human Rights, Behrami and Behrami v. France (no. 71414/01) and Saramati v. France, Germany and Norway (no. 78166/01), Decision of 2 May 2007 (Grand Chamber).
Views of the human rights committee under article 5, paragraph 4 of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Ninety-fourth session, concerning Communication No. 1472/2006 (Sayadi v. Belgium), 22 October 2008.
Domestic
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, In re Piracy Jure Gentium, [1934] A.C. 586.
C. Documents
D. Doctrine
C. D. Amerasinghe, Principles of the Institutional law of International Organizations, Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law, Cambridge, 2005, pp. 61 et seq.
M. Bos, “The Interpretation of Decisions of International Organisations”, Netherlands International Law Review, vol. 28, 1981, p. 1.
J. A. Frowein, “Unilateral Interpretations of Security Council resolutions: a Threat to Collective Security”, in V. Götz et al, Liber Amicorum Günter Jaenicke zum 85. Geburtstag, Springer, Berlin, 1998.
D. Hannay, New World Disorder - The United Nations after the Cold War: an Insider’s view, I. B. Tauris, London, 2008.
E. Papstravidis, “Interpretation of Security Council Resolutions under Chapter VII in the Aftermath of the Iraq Crisis”, International and Comparative Law Quarterly, vol. 83, 2007, p. 56.
W. A. Schabas, “Interpreting the Statutes of the Ad Hoc Tribunals”, in L. C. Vohrah et al, Man’s Inhumanity to Man. Essays in Honour of Antonio Cassese, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Leiden/Boston, 2003, p. 847.
M. C. Wood, “The Interpretation of Security Council Resolutions”, 2 Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law, vol. 73, 1998 (available to download on the website of the Yearbook).
Security Council Report, Special Research Project, 2008 No. 1, 23 June 2008 “Security Council Action under Chapter VII”.
Use of Force
International Law and the Use of Force: What Happens in Practice?
A. Legal Instruments
B. Jurisprudence
The Caroline Case (1837), 2 Moore Digest of International Law, ii (1906), pp. 409-414.
High Court of Justice, R (on the application of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) v Prime Minister [2002] EWHC 2777 (Admin), [2003] ACD 36.
International Court of Justice, Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Advisory Opinion, I.C.J. Reports 2004, p. 136.
International Court of Justice,Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Uganda), Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 2005, p. 168.
C. Documents
General Assembly resolution 2625 (XXV) of 24 October 1970 (Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations).
General Assembly resolution 3314 (XXIX) of 14 December 1974 (Definition of Aggression).
General Assembly resolution 42/22 of 18 November 1987 (Declaration on the Enhancement of the Effectiveness of the Principle of Refraining from the Threat or Use of Force in International Relations).
Security Council resolution 1368 (2001) of 12 September 2001.
Security Council resolution 1373 (2001) of 28 September 2001.
General Assembly resolution 56/83 of 12 December 2001 (Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts).
Draft articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, with commentaries, 2001 (A/56/10, reproduced in the Yearbook of the International Law Commission, 2001, vol. II (2)).
Report of the International Commission on State Sovereignty and Intervention, “The Responsibility to Protect”, December 2001.
The National Security Strategy of the United States of America, The White House, September 2002.
Security Council resolution 1441 (2002) of 8 November 2002.
“Attorney General’s advice to the Prime Minister of 7 March 2003”, British Yearbook of International Law, vol. 77, 2006, p. 819.
Report of the Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, “A more secure world: our shared responsibility’ (A/59/565, 2 December 2004), paras. 185-203.
Report of the Secretary-General, “In larger freedom – towards security, development and human rights for all” (A/59/2005, 21 March 2005), paras. 122-126.
General Assembly resolution 60/1 of 16 September 2005 (2005 World Summit Outcome).
International Criminal Court, Resolution RC/Res.6 of 11 June 2010 (The crime of aggression).
Cabinet Manual: A guide to laws, conventions and rules on the operation of government, 1st edition, London, Cabinet Office, October 2011.
D. Doctrine
T. M. Franck, “The Power of Legitimacy and the Legitimacy of Power: International Law in an Age of Power Disequilibrium”, American Journal of International Law, vol. 100, 2006, pp. 88 – 89.
M. J. Glennon, “Why the Security Council Failed”, Foreign Affairs, vol. 16, May/June 2003.
M. J. Glennon, “How International Rules Die”, Georgetown Law Journal, vol. 93, 2005, p. 939.
C. Greenwood, “Caroline, The”, Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, 2012.
L. Sievers, S. Daws, The Procedure of the UN Security Council, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 4th ed., 2014.
E. Wilmshurst, “The Chatham House Principles of International Law on the Use of Force in Self-Defence”, International and Comparative Law Quarterly, vol. 55, October 2006, p. 963.
M. Wood, “The International Law on the Use of Force. What Happens in Practice?”, Indian Journal of International Law, vol. 53, 2013, pp. 345-367.
R. Zacklin, The United Nations Secretariat and the Use of Force in a Unipolar World - Power v. Principle, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2010: Foreword by former Secretary-General Kofi Annan, p. 12-13.
“Leiden Policy Recommendations on Counter-Terrorism and International Law”, in L. van den Herik, N. Schrijver, Counter-Terrorism Strategies in a Fragmented International Legal Order: Meeting the Challenges, Cambridge University Press, 2013, p. 706.
