ABSTRACT
The idea that the end of the Cold War would herald 'the age of enforcement' in terms of international human rights law assumed that the enforcement mechanisms within the architecture of international law were dormant - i.e. that they existed but weren't being used. In fact the application of Chapter VII in 1990s, for example, demonstrated the extent to which the legal architecture was a conscious product of political expediency which left the Permanent Five members of the Security Council (P5) with considerable discretion. The legal mechanisms for addressing intra-state crises in the UN Charter were not designed to eliminate political judgement. The limited innovations which have occurred in the contemporary era have preserved the Security Council's power of discretion.
