International law, Arms embargoes and the United Nations security council

Abstract

Due to the political aspects of international law and the political nature of the problems involved in international relations, appreciation of the legal nature of United Nations Security Council arms embargoes is lacking. Based upon a review of the practice of the Council, this thesis explores the operation of arms embargoes within the overall scheme of international law and highlights how these measures provide an interface between the laws of collective security, armed conflict, human rights and arms control. The author outlines existing arms control regimes and the law applicable to the study of arms embargoes; ex amines the law relating to the powers of the United Nations Security Council under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations and the legal limits thereto; identifies the patterns in practice by expounding the nature, scope and functions of arms embargoes and comments on the possible existence of a normative framework; explores the specific legal mandate for arms embargoes and considers possible alternative legal bases; and finally, investigates other issues of international law arising from the use of arms embargoes. The powers of the Security Council exist for the pursuit of one central outcome - the maintenance of international peace and security. This thesis argues that the logical way to achieve this outcome in situations of armed conflict is to remove the tools with which those types of threats are created and sustained. Conventional weapons (in particular, small arms and light weapons) are the principal, although not the exclusive, tools of armed conflict. Arms embargoes imposed in the context of an armed conflict can be legally justified with the simple objective of suppressing conflict by means of arms control.