The Dual Face of Sovereignty

This chapter explores the dialectic of power and law as exemplified in the ambiguous status of sovereignty, in particular in the Charter and practice of the United Nations Organization. One of the main challenges for the rule of law, whether domestic or international, is how to enforce legal norms without privileging the enforcers. This is where sovereignty has revealed its dual face in relations between states. Unlike domestic constitutional systems, the framework of norms of the United Nations lacks basic elements of a separation of powers, granting special status to states that were the most powerful upon the Organization’s foundation. The Charter’s principle of sovereign equality stands in direct contradiction to the norms regulating the use of coercive powers by the UN Security Council. Analyzing multilateral as well as unilateral sanctions regimes, the chapter explains how the antagonism between equality and “coercive privilege” has enabled major global players to evade scrutiny of their conduct, and proposes an amendment of the wording of Article 27(3) of the Charter.