ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a general legal framework regulating the United Nations (UN) Security Council's exercise of authority. It discusses the international law that imposes only the formalistic limits to the guardian of international peace and security. International courts could potentially elucidate a set of principles through the creative interpretation of Charter provisions and any relevant rules of international law. The doctrine of implied powers, the inherent ambiguity in treaty provisions, and their interpretive development have enabled the Security Council and its permanent members to readily accommodate changing political priorities. The International Court of Justice's (ICJ) jurisprudence in the early stage of the UN favoured the extension, as opposed to restraint, of the powers of the newly created Organisation. Opportunities for the ICJ to exercise its incidental jurisdiction are limited, however, in that the validity of the Security Council's exercise of authority has to be intertwined with the subject matter of the dispute.
