Taking Stock: Assessing the Current Status and Evolution of the United Nations Security Council’s Legislative Resolutions

Abstract

The present essay intends to provide for an in-depth analysis concerning the enactment of new legislative resolutions by the UN Security Council with a view to dealing with foreign terrorist fighters and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant as well. It will be argued that, instead of voicing unweavering concerns about the Council’s increasing tendency to resort to this specific tool, UN Member States have widely welcomed these resolutions, deeming them necessary and proportionate response to urgent threats faced by the International Community as a whole. Accordingly, this has generated a clear distinction between the previous legislative resolutions and the recent ones. As a result, by dwelling more specifically on States’ utterances made during the meetings devoted to discuss these new general resolutions, it is argued that such resolutions are to be looked upon as subsequent practice pursuant to Article 31, paragraph 3(b) of 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT), which means that they are relevant in order to interpret Article 41 of the UN Charter. Ultimately, and based on the assumption that States are now more inclined to accept general obligations in the counter-terrorism’s domain, the manuscript addresses the topic of how the UN Security Council should legislate in order to secure the widest acceptance possible and be in accordance with several International Law’s requirements.