ABSTRACT
The provisions relating to the Security Council in the United Nations Charter of 1995 do not look much different from those in the Charter of 1945. The United Nations was conceived by the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States, with some input from China, at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in 1944. The goal was primarily to create an organization that would serve as a mechanism for post-World War II international security. In the earliest years of the United Nations, diplomats and scholars paid considerable attention to legal detail in assessing the permissible scope of Security Council authority. The Council members could be aided in this endeavor by the 'careful scrutiny of the Member States', to use the Zimbabwean formulation. In recent years, the Security Council has relied heavily on the practice of having its President issue statements reflecting the consensus reached in closed sessions by Council members.
