The Role of Article 50 of the Un Charter in the Search for International Peace and Security

2000 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 528-557
Author(s):  
Jeremy Carver ◽  
Jenine Hulsmann

International sanctions have grown in use significantly since they were deployed in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990.1 In the decade since the Kuwait crisis, economic and other measures not involving the use of force have been deployed by the international community against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro),2 Libya3 Rwanda4 Haiti5 Liberia,6 Somalia,7 Sudan,8 Sierra Leone,9 Angola,10 Eritrea and Ethiopia11 and, most recently, Afghanistan.12 International sanctions today derive—principally13—from a single source: the Security Council acting on the powers delegated to it by Member States under Article 41 of the UN Charter. However, while the sanctions contemplated by Article 41 have proved to be of continuing relevance in an increasingly interdependent world, the circumstances which enhance the potency of economic sanctions as a means of responding to an international crisis also increase the risk of loss by innocent States. The increased willingness of the Security Council to use its binding authority to impose economic sanctions has raised important questions both as to the cost of economic sanctions to implementing States, and the limits on the Council's powers.

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 241-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alena F. Douhan

The United Nations organization was planned to be established as a single universal system of collective security. Major efforts were supposed to be taken by the UN Security Council. Regional organizations were introduced into the system as a subordinate subsidiary means – elements of the system. Over the course of the time it has, however, appeared that the UN Security Council was not able to act in the way prescribed by the UN Charter in suppressing newly emerged threats and challenges in the sphere of security. In the contrary, the role of regional organizations has increased substantially. They do the majority of tasks in the sphere of maintenance of international peace and security, often without authorization or even informing the UN Security Council, although the legality of some of these actions may be dubious. As a result, the Council itself transfers the accent in relations between the UN and regional organizations from subsidiarity to complementarity or even partnership. It is thus necessary to re-check the meaning of the concepts of complementarity and subsidiarity as well as the UN Charter provisions in the changed circumstances and to specify principles of the new system.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 286-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phil Orchard

The concept of ‘safe areas’ emerged in the early 1990s as a way of responding to increasing displacement triggered by internal conflicts. As a form of protection, their record was mixed—for every success like northern Iraq in 1991, there was a failure like the collapse of the Srebrenica safe area in 1995. But why did the safe area concept itself emerge at this time? Traditionally, safe areas were akin to humanitarian spaces anchored in consent. The shift in the early 1990s was to replace consent with an international military presence, including military forces and peacekeepers. This article argues that this shift was only possible because of two critical changes which occurred within the United Nations: the recognition that civilian protection represented an international problem and the UN Security Council broadening how it interpreted the notion of ‘threats to international peace and security’ to include issues such as forced migrant flows.


1972 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 527-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Doxey

This paper falls into two main parts. In Part I an attempt is made to develop a simple framework which can be used for analyzing the role of sanctions, with special reference to international sanctions.1In Part II this framework is used to investigate the status of the United Nations as a sanctioning body and, in particular, the relationship between the UN and Southern Africa where Rhodesia has been subjected to international economic sanctions since 1965 and South Africa has been under threat of similar measures since the early 1960s.2


2011 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 539-559 ◽  
Author(s):  
NICHOLAS TSAGOURIAS

AbstractThis article considers the relationship between the United Nations and its member states in view of the Security Council's assertion of legislative powers. It claims that the exponential growth in UN powers at the expense of the powers of its member states cannot be arrested by legal means, because of the nature of the UN system and the absence of legally enforceable criteria and compulsory dispute-settlement mechanisms. For this reason, it proposes a different approach to law-making in the area of international peace and security – one that is built around the principle of subsidiarity, as reflected in Article 2(7) of the UN Charter. The role of the principle of subsidiarity in this respect is to determine which authority is best suited to exercise legislative power and how such power should be exercised in order to attain the objective of peace and security more efficiently. It is thus contended that the principle of subsidiarity promotes co-operative relations between the United Nations and its member states by protecting the latters' jurisdictional authority from unnecessary interference.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 471-483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Trahan

Abstract This article revisits the role of the United Nations (UN) Security Council in making referrals of the crime of aggression to the International Criminal Court (ICC). It examines the increase in significance of the role of the Security Council caused by the apparent jurisdictional limitations in the resolution activating the ICC’s jurisdiction over the crime when cases are initiated through State Party referral or proprio motu. Since these jurisdictional limitations seemingly decrease the possibility for ICC crime of aggression cases to be initiated without Security Council referral, they also render the Prosecutor less able to play a role in prevention or providing early warning regarding the crime. This increases the need for the Security Council to fulfil this prevention or early warning function, which is entirely appropriate given the Security Council’s primary responsibility under the UN Charter for the maintenance of international peace and security. The General Assembly may, although to a lesser extent, be able to play a similar role.


AJIL Unbound ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 108 ◽  
pp. 118-122
Author(s):  
Ieva Miluna

The Uniting for Peace resolution together with the UN Charter prescribes a certain role for the General Assembly with regard to international peace and security. Larry Johnson addresses that role, but he does not consider a second question: how does the Uniting for Peace resolution affect the UN Security Council? The normative role of the Council is influenced not only by the Charter, but also by general international law. In this comment, I explore the normative role of the Council in fulfilling the Charter’s purpose to maintain international peace and security. I argue that the text of the Charter and the prior practice of both the Assembly and the Council help to determine the proper division of these organs’ respective tasks within the Charter system. I conclude that the Council alone exercises the constant control needed to enforce measures of collective security effectively, and that the Assembly is limited to recommending the consequences for states when threats or breaches of the peace occur.


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