UN Security Council Resolutions as Source of Public International Law
International law consists of a system of rules and principles that govern international
relations between sovereign states and other institutional subjects of international law, such
as the United Nations (UN). Each legal system must have some criteria by which legal
norms or ‘laws’ are recognised. It must have reasonably clear sources of law. This essay
will briefly explain the sources of public international law (PIL) as outlined in Article 38
of the Statue of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and then discuss how well these
sources work to aid international law, and what they fail to do. Then, additional sources of
PIL not outlined in Article 38 will be discussed – the resolutions of international
organisations, in particular the Security Council Resolutions. This essay will discuss their
powers, their limits, and how these resolutions work together with the other sources of PIL
to contribute to international law, and will evaluate the status of them as a source of PIL,
and how effective it is in terms of maintaining peace and international security – the aim of
the Security Council.
To be able to discuss whether the Security Council resolutions are a source of public
international law, and what their status is, one must first understand what they are. A
Security Council resolution is a UN resolution adopted by fifteen members of the Security
Council. They are “formal expressions of the opinion or will of the United Nations
organs”. Discussed in these resolutions, are topics relating to the maintenance of
international piece and security.
What is the status of the UN Security Council resolutions as a source of public
international law? To be able to answer this question, one must first take a look at the
current sources of public international law: Customary law, treaties, general principles of
law recognized by civilized nations, judicial decision, and the writing of the most qualified
publicists, as they are outlined in Article 38:
“1. The Court, whose function is to decide in accordance with international law such
disputes as are submitted to it, shall apply:
a. international conventions, whether general or particular, establishing rules expressly
recognized by the contesting states;
b. international custom, as evidence of a general practice accepted as law;
c. the general principles of law recognized by civilized nations;
d. subject to the provisions of Article 59, judicial decisions and the teachings of the most
highly qualified publicists of the various nations, as subsidiary means for the determination
