Security Council & International Court of Justice: Crisis Management & Dispute Resolution - Essay Sample

Introduction

The Security Council is an organ within the United Nation's crisis management that is charged with the mandate of maintaining international peace and security. As such, it is the role of the Security Council to decide on the time and place upon which the UN peace operations ought to be deployed. International Court of Justice, however, is a principal judicial organ within the United Nations that is responsible for settling various disputes submitted to it by multiple states following international law (De Wet, 2004). Both the Security Council and the International Court of Justice exercise their mandates independently devoid of the principle of connexity, res judicata and lis pendens. There are various effective examples in the past where the SC and the ICJ have been effective in their perceived powers and functions.

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The Effectiveness of the Security Council in The Past

The Security Council has the inalienable power to convene over issues relating to peace between member states such as the ultimate power to impose economic sanctions on the erring nations as well as draft resolutions concerning particular issues. The Judicial review of the question of the legality of the Security Council is both possible under the constitutional and the procedural law of the United Nations (Lominé et al., 2014). For instance, the General Assembly, together with the Security Council both have the power to and right to request for advisory opinions relating to the decisions made by the Security Council. The effectiveness of the Security Council in performing its mandates according to the international law was observed in the examples below.

Civil War in Somalia

In 1992, the Security Council made a unanimous agreement to adopt the UN SC Resolution 733 which provided for the imposition of a complete and general embargo on Somalia especially at a time when the civil war and the breakdown of the central government resulted in widespread famine in the area. This was closely followed by the establishment of the United Nations operations in Somalia (Miller, 2014).

The extremely civilian operation was majorly charged with the responsibility of monitoring the cease-fire of the 1992 March as well as ensuring the provision of humanitarian relief. It is important to note that due to the deterioration of conditions in Somalia, the Security Council resorted to the UN SC Resolution 764 which provided for the establishment of a unified task force that was to ensure that by any means they delivered humanitarian support within Somalia.

Since then, there have been serious operations conducted by the Security Council, particularly in Somalia (Miller, 2014). For instance, in 2007, the Security Council Resolution of 1744 resorted to limiting the embargo to non-state actors. This permitted the supply of military equipment and weapons that were solely aimed at assisting in the development of Somalia security sector (Lowe et al., 2010). The resolution 1844 of the Security Council provided for the amendment of the arms embargo to be aligned with the entities that have gone contrary to the arms embargo as well as barred the delivery of humanitarian aid in Somalia.

Iraq and Kuwait

The Security Council has the mandate of identifying potential threats to global peace as could be observed in the Iraq case (Lominé et al., 2014). The Success of the Security Council in reinforcing peace operations in Iraq and Kuwait in 1990 and 1991 brought into the fore a period of UN activism in the various trouble spot regions around the world characterized by numerous numbers of peacekeeping missions. The Iraq invasion of Kuwait in 1990 spurred numerous reactions that brought the United Nations Security Council to the limelight.

Upon condemning Iraq's act of invading Kuwait, the Security Council made essential decisions (Kolb, 2013). For instance, it decided to impose economic sanctions against Iraq and ensured they complied through by occupying Kuwait. Most importantly, the council made Resolution 678 (1990) which provided for the use of all possible means in implementing the previous recommendations of the United Nations Security Council (Miller, 2014).

Again, it is worth noting that post-war action of 1991 permitted the adoption of some series of twelve resolutions that aimed at assigning an extensive set of roles to the United Nations as well as imposed on Iraq a series of extensive obligations (Lominé et al., 2014). Concisely, the intervention of the Security Council in Iraq and Kuwait gave rise to Resolution 687 of 1991, which is considered the longest and the longest ever resolution (Lowe et al., 2010). The resolution, however, provided for the various issue that was to be covered by the United Nations. Among the pertinent questions that were presented in the resolution include sanctions on Iraq, demarcation of boundaries, and weapon of mass destruction, among others

Peacekeeping in Mozambique and Namibia

The Security Council conducted some successful peace management strategy in Mozambique that played a significant role in rescuing the country from imminent failure. A bitter civil war had begun immediately upon gaining independence by Mozambique from Portugal in 1975 (Kolb, 2013). The creation of FRELIMO during the long struggle permitted the United Nation Security Council to destabilize the Mozambique socialist government.

The Security Council was tasked with the role of undertaking a significant role in the monitoring the implementation of the particular agreement as well as to perform some specific functions relating to the cease-fire, humanitarian assistance and elections (Kolb, 2013). Again, with the decline of the cold war, a better corporation within the Security Council was resulting in the provision of a chance to promote long-standing conflicts (Posner & De Figueiredo, 2005).

Effectiveness of the International Court of Justice

The international court of justice has a mandate of settling legal disputes, as well as giving advisory opinions that are following international law (De Wet, 2004). However, it is essential to note that the jurisdiction of the international court of justice is quite limited, as it only covers the issues that relate to special agreements among various countries.

Again, for a treaty-based jurisdiction, countries must always consent to the jurisdictions of the International court of justice, especially at the time of the formation of the treaty (Posner & De Figueiredo, 2005). The effectiveness of the International Court of Justice has always been depicted as discussed below.

Provision of Advisory Opinions

Along with settling disputes, the international court of justice has been seen in the past to be effective in providing advisory opinions on various legal matters. According to article 65 of the International Court of justice statutes, the court is also mandated to offer advisory opinions on any legal question upon request by whatever organization or body (De Wet, 2004). For instance, since the emergence of the international court of justice, it has provided some twenty-six advisory opinions that were significant in international law.

The most significant advisory opinion by the international court of justice was the Reservation to the Genocide Convention case and the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear weapons case (Kolb, 2013). It is essential to note that these advisory opinions made significant improvements to the international humanitarian law as well as the international environmental law, respectively.

Improvement of the State Reputation

Reputation relates to the judgement of a person's character, which could then be used in predicting or explain future behaviour (Lominé et al., 2014). State reputation is essential in international relations since most states often act on behalf of their reputations to obtain material benefits (De Wet, 2004). In other words, various countries seek to expand their power by displaying good reputations so that they can gain economic power and more materials in future.

Because the International Court of Justice publishes all the judgements, it creates vulnerability for various states that have accepted its jurisdiction in a dispute (Miller, 2014). As such, the published judgements form the basis upon countries can judge each other. It is thus essential to note that countries that are parties to the cases within the International Court of Justice are likely to be increasingly compliant with the rulings lest they lose their reputations.

Individual Sanctions

International Court of Justice has the power to invoke sanctions against individuals who are responsible for the disruption of international peace and order (Miller, 2014). For instance, the Nuremberg trials were a judgement by the international court of justice against various individuals who were personally responsible for the planning and execution of the Nazi war aggression (Posner & De Figueiredo, 2005). It is worth noting that this proceeding was held in London on August 1945 upon the establishment of the International military tribunal by France, the United States, Soviet Union and Great Britain.

Most significantly, the Nuremberg trials were seen to play a great role in the development of international law (Kolb, 2013). For instance, it was established that the rapine, massacres, calculated executions as well as ruthless tortures that were committed by the Nazi henchmen significantly defied the laws of legitimate warfare.

In conclusion, The Security Council is an organ within the United Nation's crisis management that is charged with the mandate of maintaining international peace and security. International Court of Justice, however, is a principal judicial organ within the United Nations that is responsible for settling various disputes submitted to it by multiple states following international law. There are various effective examples in the past where the SC and the ICJ have been effective in their perceived powers and functions.

For instance, the effectiveness of the Security Council was observed through its involvement in peacekeeping in Mozambique and Namibia, Iraq and Kuwait, as well as Somalia. Again the effectiveness of the International Court of Justice was observed in terms of provision of advisory options, improving the reputations of various states as well as the implementation of various sanctions.

References

De Wet, E. (2004). The Chapter VII Powers of the United Nations Security Council (Vol. 3). Hart Publishing.

Kolb, R. (2013). The international court of justice. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Lominé, L., Muchena, M. M., & Pierce, R. A. (2014). Business Management: Course Companion. Oxford University Press.

Lopardo, M. J. (1978). Nuremberg Trials and International Law. In the University of Baltimore Law Forum (Vol. 8, No. 2, p. 18). Retrieved from https://scholarworks.law.ubalt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1150&context=lf

Lowe, V., Roberts, A., Welsh, J., & Zaum, D. (Eds.). (2010). The United Nations Security Council and war: the evolution of thought and practice since 1945. OUP Oxford.

Miller, V. (2014). Making EU law into UK law. Online] London: House of Commons Library http://researchbriefings. Files. Parliament. UK/documents/SN07002/SN07002. pdf accessed, 1(09), 2016.

Posner, E. A., & De Figueiredo, M. F. (2005). Is the International Court of Justice Biased?. The Journal of Legal Studies, 34(2), 599-630. Retrieved from https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/430765