Mr. Hammarskjold, the Charter Law and the Future Role of the United Nations Secretary General

1962 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Stein
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
Future Role ◽  
The Future ◽  
The United Nations

[This article was completed in the summer of 1961 before Dag Hammarskjold’s tragic death. It was intended primarily to provide an account of Mr. Hammarskjold’s own concept of the legal-constitutional framework within which he performed his high office. The article is now offered—without modification—as a modest tribute to a man who has left an historic imprint on the development of international law and organization.]

A Constitutional Moment?: United Nations Peacekeeping in the Democratic Republic of Congo

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott P. Sheeran
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
Legal Responsibility ◽  
Checks And Balances ◽  
Important Means ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Withdrawal Of Support

AbstractThe United Nations (UN) is the world's most prominent international organization, and a key issue is its responsibility under international law. The contemporary growth in UN powers and activities has not been matched by parallel developments in accountability and checks and balances within the UN legal order. This was recently brought to the fore in the instance of UN peacekeepers providing support to Congolese army forces responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. It became a significant public issue and the Secretary-General eventually withdrew UN support from a unit of the Congolese army. This article demonstrates that this withdrawal of support by the Secretary-General represents a constitutional moment for the United Nations. It confirmed a key premise that the Secretary-General is normatively constrained under the Charter, including by the Organization's obligations, when implementing the decisions of the Security Council. This is a legal development which engages a number of emerging and uncertain areas of international law relating to the United Nations, including the UN's constitutional law, the responsibility of international organizations, the substantive obligations of the Organization, and the role of international law in peace and security. Recognizing this important development not only confirms the Secretary-General's legal responsibility under the Charter, it reinforces the view of the Charter as a living instrument and provides an effective and important means for incorporating the law of responsibility into the UN constitutional order and a check upon the expansive application of the Security Council's implied powers doctrine.

The UN Secretary-General and the Security Council

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Security Council ◽  
United Nations Security Council ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
Organizational Relationships ◽  
Dynamic Relationship ◽  
International Mediation ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Relationship

The United Nations Secretary-General and the United Nations Security Council spend significant amounts of time on their relationship with each other. They rely on each other for such important activities as peacekeeping, international mediation, and the formulation and application of normative standards in defense of international peace and security—in other words, the executive aspects of the UN’s work. The edited book The UN Secretary-General and the Security Council: A Dynamic Relationship aims to fill an important lacuna in the scholarship on the UN system. Although there exists an impressive body of literature on the development and significance of the Secretariat and the Security Council as separate organs, an important gap remains in our understanding of the interactions between them. Bringing together some of the most prominent authorities on the subject, this volume is the first book-length treatment of this topic. It studies the UN from an innovative angle, creating new insights on the (autonomous) policy-making of international organizations and adding to our understanding of the dynamics of intra-organizational relationships. Within the book, the contributors examine how each Secretary-General interacted with the Security Council, touching upon such issues as the role of personality, the formal and informal infrastructure of the relationship, the selection and appointment processes, as well as the Secretary-General’s threefold role as a crisis manager, administrative manager, and manager of ideas.

Stakeholder Theory and Justice Issues: The Leap from Business Management to Contemporary International Law

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-180
Author(s):  
Bronik Matwijkiw ◽  
Anja Matwijkiw
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Stakeholder Theory ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Business Management ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
The United Nations

AbstractIn this article, the two authors examine the leap from business management to contemporary international law in the context of stakeholder theory. Because stakeholder theory was developed for business management, they provide a thorough account of the original framework. Furthermore, to illustrate the theory's application as a recently adopted parameter for the United Nations, they use former Secretary-General Kofi Atta Annan's 2004-report to the Security Council, "The Rule of Law and Transitional Justice in Conflict and Post-Conflict Societies". Proceeding on the hypothesis that while all premises ultimately match traditional positions in general jurisprudence, it appears that stakeholder theory nevertheless forces the United Nations to take sides in an unprecedented manner, especially pertaining to rights-typology and the credentials-checking for this. Finally, some of the most important implications are distilled as part of an attempt to formulate a few recommendations for United Nations justice managers and administrators.

3. Human rights foreign policy and the role of the United Nations

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Clapham
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Review Process ◽  
Periodic Review ◽  
Universal Periodic Review ◽  
High Commissioner ◽  
The United Nations

How are human rights put into practice? What does it mean when governments announce that their foreign policy is concerned with promoting and protecting human rights? Where is the enforcement of these rights? ‘Human rights foreign policy and the role of the United Nations’ considers human rights in terms of foreign policy and international law and examines the UN’s Universal Periodic Review process and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. It is only recently that governments have actively involved themselves in how another state treats its nationals, but enthusiasm for human rights in foreign policy ebbs and flows.

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