United Nations Sanctions And The Rule Of Law

The United Nations Security Council has increasingly resorted to sanctions as part of its efforts to prevent and resolve conflict. In this 2007 book, Farrall traces the evolution of the Security Council's sanctions powers and charts the contours of the UN sanctions system. He also evaluates the extent to which the Security Council's increasing commitment to strengthening the rule of law extends to its sanctions practice. The book identifies shortcomings in respect of key rule of law principles and advances pragmatic policy-reform proposals designed to ensure that UN sanctions promote, strengthen and reinforce the rule of law. In its appendices United Nations Sanctions and the Rule of Law contains summaries of all 25 UN sanctions regimes established to date by the Security Council. It forms an invaluable source of reference for diplomats, policymakers, scholars and advocates.

The reactivation of the Security Council at the beginning of the last decade has resulted, since the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq on August 2, l990, in increasing use of its powers under Chapter VII of the Charter and the adoption of measures against a number of state and non-state entities. The notion of a threat to the peace has now come to encompass violations of fundamental norms of international law such as human rights and humanitarian law, and the wide-ranging measures adopted have included such innovations as the establishment of the UN Compensation Commission or that of the two international criminal tribunals for Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. These measures have not only infringed on the legal rights of the targeted state (sometimes with irreversible effects where they have remained in force over a long period of time) and its population, but also on those of implementing states and of private rights within these states. The current debate over the legitimacy and long-term effects of economic sanctions on states and their populations makes it imperative to re-evaluate this instrument and the broader peace maintenance function of the Security Council in the light of current community concerns. Part One of this book addresses the theoretical issues by focussing on: 1) The place of sanctions in the international legal system; 2) the limits to the powers of the Security Council and the question of accountability; and 3) an assessment of the alternatives to collective economic sanctions. Part Two looks at the relationship between sanctions and humanitarian issues, examining the relationship between: 1) Sanctions and human rights law; 2) sanctions, humanitarian issues and mandates; and 3) sanctions and humanitarian law. Part Three focuses on implementation by states of Security Council sanctions resolutions by examining: 1) Sanctions and private rights; and 2) special problems for implementing states. Part Four addresses the future in reassessing the place and ethics of sanctions in an international legal system which is giving increased importance to the individual. This work is based on papers presented at a colloquium of the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva.

Farrall surveys the history of UN sanctions.

The UN Security Council formally acknowledged an obligation to promote justice and the rule of law in 2003. This volume examines the extent to which the Council has honoured this commitment when exercising its powers under the UN Charter to maintain international peace and security. It discusses both how the concept of the rule of law regulates, or influences, Security Council activity and how the Council has in turn shaped the notion of the rule of law. It explores in particular how this relationship has affected the Security Council’s three most prominent tools for the maintenance of international peace and security: peacekeeping, sanctions and force. In doing so, this volume identifies strategies for better promotion of the rule of law by the Security Council. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of international law, international relations, international development and peacekeeping.

This work is a comparative study of domestic implementation of Security Council mandatory sanctions taken under Article 41, Chapter VII of the UN Charter, including the establishment of the two international criminal tribunals, the ICTY and ICTR, and recent resolutions on the combating of the financing of terrorism. The book examines implementation in 16 select States in Europe, America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, underlining also the particular problems arising from sanctions implementation by the European Union, by a permanently neutral and former non-Member State - Switzerland - and by States confronted with special economic problems within the meaning of Article 50 of the UN Charter. Three interrelated themes are addressed. The first, of a theoretical nature, concerns the question of whether implementation of Security Council resolutions, particularly where perceived to be in fulfilment of community objectives, poses problems which are in some way distinct from those raised by the implementation of other conventional international law obligations, thereby shedding a different light on the traditional relationship between international and municipal law. The second concerns the effectiveness of the decisions of the Security Council viewed from the perspective of the effective mise en oeuvre of these decisions in national law. The third theme concerns the legitimacy of Security Council resolutions as seen from the viewpoint of domestic legal systems, that is the extent to which Security Council decisions encroach on internationally or constitutionally protected individual rights and the potential role played by domestic courts in reviewing the decisions of the Security Council.The latter has assumed particular importance in the framework of the combating of the financing of terrorism. This work, which brings together the research results of 29 academics and experts, is the second publication within the framework of a project on Security Council sanctions carried out under the auspices of the Graduate Institute of International Studies. The first, which looked at a broad set of issues, was entitled "United Nations Sanctions and International Law" and was published by Kluwer Law International in 2001.

The UN Security Council is entrusted under the UN Charter with primary responsibility for the maintenance and restoration of the international peace; it is the only body with the power to authorise military intervention legally and impose international sanctions where it decides. However, its decision-making process has hitherto been obscure and allegations of political bias have been made against the Security Council in its responses to potential international threats. Despite the rule of law featuring on the Security Council’s agenda for over a decade and a UN General Assembly declaration in 2012 establishing that the rule of law should apply internally to the UN, the Security Council has yet to formulate or incorporate a rule of law framework that would govern its decision-making process. This book explains the necessity of a rule of law framework for the Security Council before analysing existing literature and UN documents on the domestic and international rule of law in search of concepts suitable for transposition to the arena of the Security Council. It emerges with eight core components, which form a bespoke rule of law framework for the Security Council. Against this framework, the Security Council’s decision-making process since the end of the Cold War is meticulously evaluated, illustrating explicitly where and how the rule of law has been undermined or neglected in its behaviour. Ultimately, the book concludes that the Security Council and other bodies are unwilling or unable adequately to regulate the decision-making process against a suitable rule of law framework, and argues that there exists a need for the external regulation of Council practice and judicial review of its decisions.

Efforts to reform the use of the veto -- Conclusions -- 11 Accountability -- Introduction -- Self-regulation -- The accountability, coherence and transparency (ACT) group -- The Office of the Ombudsperson -- Sibling UN organs -- The International Court of Justice -- Potential coordination with the ICJ -- The General Assembly -- Conclusions -- Final conclusions -- Index