Articles

• Orakhelashvili, Alexander

Abstract

The United Nations Security Council is the most powerful institutional body ever established at the global level. Its existence and powers, as based on the United Nations Charter, firmly evidence the support of the entire international community. At the same time, the will of the international community as a whole can be expressed at different levels and in different ways. In today’s international law, there can be little doubt that the international community as a whole attaches special importance and effects to peremptory norms of general international law <it>(jus cogens)</it> and endows them with high status. The interaction between those high-ranking norms and the powers of the Security Council is therefore among the most central issues of international law. In searching for a preferable approach, it is proposed to consider the treaty-based character of the Security Council’s powers. The Council is not free of legal limitations, and this conclusion cannot be rebutted even by referring to the classical debate on the interaction between the concepts of peace and justice in international relations, because the General Assembly and Security Council have repeatedly affirmed the relevance of the observance of law in maintaining and restoring international peace and security, notably with regard to the conflicts of the Middle East and Former Yugoslavia. Bearing all this in mind, this article will examine the scope and legal effects of the legal limitations imposed on the Security Council by the operation of peremptory norms.