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Principles of the UN
1. All its members are equal and all are committed to fulfill in good faith their obligations under the Charter 2. To settle their disputes with each other by peaceful means 3. To refrain form the threat or use of force in their international relations 4. To refrain from assisting any State against which the UN is taking preventive or enforcement action.
Approval of the General Assembly (GA) by a vote of at least 2/3 of those present and voting.
Suspension of Membership
Suspension may occur when a preventive or enforcement action has been taken by the SC. The SC may, by a qualified majority, recommend suspension to the GA who shall in turn concur with a 2/3 vote of those present and voting. Discipline does not suspend the members obligations but only the exercise of its rights and privileges as a member. Only the SC may lift the suspension by a qualified majority.
Expulsion of a Member
The penalty of expulsion may be imposed upon a member which has persistently violated the principles in the UN Charter. Same voting requirement as to suspension.
Subsidiary Organs
those which was created by the Charter itself or which it allows to be created whenever necessary by the SC or GA.
Little Assembly Interim Committee, created in 1947 for a term of one eyar and re-established in 1949 for an indefinite term. Composed of one delegate for each member-state, it meets when the General Assembly is in recess and assists this body in the performance of its functions. Military Staff Committee Human Rights Commission
Specialized Agencies
not part of the UN, but have been brought into close contact with it because of their purposes and functions, such as:
World Health Organization International Monetary Fund Technical Assistance Board
UN General Assembly
This is the central organ of the UN. The principal deliberative body of the organization and is vested with jurisdiction over matters concerning the internal machinery and operations of the UN. Composition:
Consists of all the members of the UN. Each member is entitled to send no more than 5 delegates and 5 alternates and as many technical and other personnel as it may need.
GA Sessions
1. Regular sessions every year beginning the third Tuesday of September. 2. Special sessions may be called at the request of the SC, a majority of the member states, or one member with the concurrence of the majority. 3. Emergency special session may be called within 24 hours at the request of the SC by vote of any 9 members or by a majority of the members of the UN.
GA Voting Rules
Each member or delegation has 1 vote in the GA. Important Questions are decided by 2/3 majority of those present and voting. All other matters, including the determination of whether a question is important or not, are decided by simple majority. Important Questions include: a) peace and security, b) membership, c) election, d) trusteeship system, e) budget
UN Security Council
An organ of the UN primarily responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security. Their responsibility makes the SC a key influence in the direction of the affairs not only of the Organization but of the entire international community as well.
SC Composition
Composed of 15 members, 5 of which are permanent.
The so-called Big Five are China, France, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The other ten members are elected for 2-year terms by the GA, 5 from the African and Asian states, 1 from Eastern European states, 2 from Latin American states, and 2 from Western European and other states.
SC Sessions
The SC is required to function continuously and to hold itself in readiness in case of threat to or actual breach of international peace. For this purpose, all members should be represented at all times at the seat of the Organization.
SC Voting Rules
Each member of the SC has 1 vote, but distinction is made between the permanent and the non-permanent members in the decision of substantive questions. Yalta Voting Formula
a. Procedural matters 9 votes of any of SC members b. Substantive matters 9 votes including 5 permanent votes. No member, permanent or not, is allowed to vote on questions concerning the pacific settlement of a dispute to which it is a party.
ICJ Jurisdiction
by the conclusion between the parties of a special agreement to submit the dispute to the Court; by virtue of a jurisdictional clause; through the reciprocal effect of declarations made by them under the Statute whereby each has accepted the jurisdiction of the Court as compulsory in the event of a dispute with another State having made a similar declaration; In cases of doubt as to whether the Court has jurisdiction, it is the Court itself which decides.
Advisory Opinions
The advisory procedure of the Court is open solely to international organizations.
The only bodies at present authorized to request advisory opinions of the Court are five organs of the United Nations and 16 specialized agencies of the United Nations family. [Article 65(1)]: The Court may give an advisory opinion on any legal question at the request of whatever body may be authorized by or in accordance with the Charter of the UN to make such a request.
Dispute
a disagreement on a point of law or fact, a conflict of legal views or interests between two persons.
The mere denial of the existence of a dispute does not prove its non-existence because disputes are matters for objective determination.
International Dispute
The charging of one State and the denial of another of the dispute as charged, creates an international dispute as there has thus arisen a situation in which the two sides hold clearly opposite views concerning the questions of the performance or non-performance of their treaty obligations. Confronted with such a situation, the Court must conclude that international disputes have arisen. ICJ Reports 1950
Nature
It is well established in international law that no State can, without its consent, be compelled to submit its disputes with other States either to mediation or arbitration, or to any other kind of pacific settlement
Legal Dispute
the following are deemed constitutive of a legal dispute:
interpretation of a treaty; any question of international law; the existence of any fact which, if established, would constitute a breach of an international obligation; the nature or extent of the reparation to be made for the breach of an international obligation.
Dispute v. Situation
A dispute can properly be considered as a disagreement on a matter at issue between two or more States which has reached a stage at which the parties have formulated claims and counterclaims sufficiently definite to be passed upon by a court or other body set up for the purpose of pacific settlement. A situation, by contrast, is a state of affairs which has not yet assumed the nature of conflict between the parties but which may, though not necessarily, come to have that character.
Optional Clause
The following are deemed legal disputes:
Interpretation of a treaty; Any question of international law; The existence of any fact which, if established, would constitute a breach of an international obligation; and The nature or extent of the reparation to be made for the breach of an international obligation.
Negotiation
The legal and orderly administrative process by which governments, in the exercise of their unquestionable powers, conduct their relations with one another and discuss, adjust and settle their differences. The chief and most common method of settling international disputes. By this method, the parties seek a solution of their differences by direct exchange of views between themselves. This is the very essence of diplomacy.
Good Offices
An attempt of a third party to bring together the disputing States to effect a settlement of their disputes. This is NOT to be regarded as an unfriendly act. Tender of good office A tender of good office may be made by: Third State international organs such as the UN; or Individuals or eminent citizens of a third State.
Mediation
This is the action of a third party in bringing the parties to a dispute together and helping them in a more or less informal way to find a basis for the settlement of their dispute.
Enquiry
Enquiry is the establishment of the facts involved in a dispute and the clarification of the issues in order that their elucidation might contribute to its settlement.
Basis it rests on the theory that certain disputes could be settled if the facts of the case were established. Object of Enquiry - to ascertain the facts underlying a dispute and thereby prepare the way for a negotiated adjustment or settlement of the dispute.
Conciliation
This is the process of settling disputes by referring them to commissions or other international bodies, usually consisting of persons designated by agreement between the parties to the conflict, whose task is to elucidate the facts and make a report containing proposals, for a settlement, which, however, have no binding character.
Conciliation v. Enquiry
In enquiry, the main object is to establish the facts. In conciliation, the main object is not only to elucidate the facts but to bring the parties to an agreement.
Arbitration
This is a procedure for the settlement of disputes between States by a binding award on the basis of law and as the result of an undertaking voluntarily accepted.
Principle of Free Determination this principle applies to the competence of the arbitral tribunal, the law to be applied and the procedure to be followed. Choice of Arbitrators the arbitrators should be either freely selected by the parties or, at least, the parties should have been given the opportunity of a free choice of arbitrators.
Arbitration
States are under no legal obligation to arbitrate their disputes. compromis d arbitrage the agreement to arbitrate. It is the charter of the arbitral tribunal. Contains the following:
the questions to be settled; the method of selecting arbitrators and their number; Venue; expenses; the arbitral award;rules of procedure; and the law to be applied.
Judicial Settlement
This means settlement by a permanent international court of justice, in accordance with judicial methods. Arbitration proceedings may be similar to the functions and process of judicial settlement but the arbitral tribunal is NOT a permanent body as compared to the body referred to in this type of PS.
Retorsion
Consists of an unfriendly, but not international illegal act of one State against another in retaliation for the latters unfriendly or inequitable conduct. It does not involve the use of force. States resorting to retorsion retaliate by acts of the same or similar kind as those complained of. It is resorted to by States usually in cases of unfair treatment of their citizens abroad.
Reprisals
Any kind of forcible or coercive measures whereby one State seeks to exercise a deterrent effect or to obtain redress or satisfaction, directly or indirectly, for the consequences of the illegal acts of another State, which has refused to make amends for such illegal conduct.
Kinds of Reprisal
Reprisal as a form of self-help is resorted to for the purpose of settling a dispute or redressing a grievance without going to war, consequently no state of war exists between the State resorting to reprisals and the State against whom such acts are directed. Reprisal taken by belligerents in the course of war the purpose of the latter kind of reprisals is to compel a belligerent to observe or desist from violating the laws of warfare; it presupposes, therefore, the existence of a state of war between the parties concerned.
Reprisal v. Retorsion
REPRISAL RETORSION
Consists of retaliatory conduct which is legitimate or is not in violation of international law. Generally resorted to by a Acts which give rise to State in consequence of an retorsion though obnoxious act or omission of another do not amount to an State which under international delinquency. international law constitutes an international delinquency.
Forms of Reprisal
military occupation display of force naval bombardment seizure of ships at sea seizure of properties of nationals of the delinquent State freezing of assets of its citizens embargo boycott pacific blockade
Embargo
This is originally a form of reprisal consisting of forcible detention of the vessels of the offending State or of its nationals which happened to be lying in the ports of the injured or aggrieved State. Later, the practice was extended to such vessels also as were seized in the high seas, or even within the territorial waters of the offending State.
Kinds of Embargo
Civic or Pacific Embargo
A form of embargo employed by a State to its own vessels within its national domain or of resources which otherwise might find their way into foreign territory.
Collective Embargo
Embargo by a group of States directed against an offending State. This may be:
collective embargo on import or export of narcotic drugs; collective embargo by way of enforcement action under the UN Charter
Boycott
A comparatively modern form of reprisal which consists of a concerted suspension of trade and business relations with the nationals of the offending State.
Non-intercourse
Consists of suspension of ALL commercial intercourse with a State. A complete or partial interruption of economic relations with the offending State as a form of enforcement measure.
Pacific Blockade
A naval operation carried out in time of peace whereby a State prevents access to or exit from particular ports or portions of the coast of another State for the purpose of compelling the latter to yield to certain demands made upon it by the blockading State.
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