ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the powers of the UN Security Council (UNSC) as an institution with primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security'. It discusses the nature of law enforcement and punishment in international relations, with a special focus on the use of force. The chapter looks at the manner in which the powers of the UNSC contrive to inhibit the consistent application of both Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and the International Criminal Court (ICC). It explores instance arising from the Arab Uprisings as evidence of this selectivity and punitive elements of the international response. The chapter examines humanitarian intervention and the punishment of human rights violators in the current international order being framed in such a way that it consolidates the position of sheriffs rather than strengthening judges. At present even post R2P the international legal system comprises just such a constitutional conflation.
