The only organ empowered to impose mandatory sanctions—the Security Council—is the organ most paralyzed by the vetoes of its permanent members.
Author
Vesselin Popovski, Professor, Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal global university, Sonipat, Haryana, India.
Summary
This chapter addresses a central problem in international legal order—the vetoes applied by some permanent members of the United Nations (UN) Security Council, preventing the organisation from exercising its primary role in restoring and maintaining international peace and security efficiently.
It starts by presenting the gap between codification and implementation in international law, especially wide where enforcement mechanisms and sanctions are not envisaged in the treaties or where a veto allows avoiding sanctions.
The only organ empowered to impose mandatory sanctions—the Security Council—is the organ most paralyzed by the vetoes of its permanent members. The article goes through several proposals already made by the author, reassesses them in terms of feasibility and discusses how the power of veto can be eliminated.
Published in: Reimagining the International Legal Order, Pages 169 – 179, Routledge, 1st Edition, 2023.
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