The legal status of United Nations Security Council resolutions

Abstract

This dissertation will tackle the question pertaining to the legal status of United Nations Security Council Resolutions and the subsequent questions which emerge through the research. Existing literature on Security Council Resolutions will be explored, providing a solid basis for the discussion. The discussion will tackle issues that arise when a Resolution conflicts with existing international law, and when a Resolution is unclear as to whether it is a recommendation or a decision. The evolution of Resolutions with the evolution of new threats to peace will be explored. It will also feature recently adopted Resolutions and the existing literature will be linked with the contemporary political context of the Security Council. Articles 24, 25, 36, 39 and 103 of the Charter of the United Nations will be at the core of the discussion. An attempt to reconcile them with the classification of the sources of international law as found in Article 38 (1) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice will be made. As the discussion progresses, it will be shown that the question of whether there should be judicial review of Security Council Resolutions is heavily interlinked with determining their legal status. Systematic judicial review by the ICJ as well as clarification of the position of Security Council Resolutions as a source of law will be proposed at the end of the discussion.