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Uniting for “Peace” in the Second Cold War: A Response to Larry Johnson

Part of: Uniting for Peace Resolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Boris N. Mamlyuk
Boris N. Mamlyuk*
Affiliation:
University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law
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Larry Johnson’s timely and important essay challenges both utopian and realist accounts of UN law and practice by reviving the debate over the nature and functions of the UN General Assembly, particularly the General Assembly’s power to deploy certain legal tactics not only to influence collective security deliberations in the UN Security Council, but also, more significantly, to provide some legal justification for multilateral military “collective measures” in the event of Security Council gridlock. One vehicle by which the General Assembly may assert its own right to intervene in defense of “international peace and security” is a “Uniting for Peace” (UFP) resolution, authorized by resolution 377(V) (1950). At its core, a “uniting for peace” resolution is an attempt to circumvent a Security Council deadlock by authorizing Member States to take collective action, including the use of force, in order to maintain or restore international peace and security. General Assembly resolution 377(V) does not require resolutions to take specific legal form—language that echoes the preambular “lack of unanimity of the permanent members [that results in the Security Council failing to] exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security” is sufficient to render a given resolution a UFP, provided the General Assembly resolution calls for concrete “collective [forceful] measures.” For this reason, experts disagree on precisely how many times a UFP has indeed been invoked or implemented, although informed analysts suggest UFP has been invoked in slightly more than ten instances since 1950.

Type
Symposium on the Uniting for Peace Resolution
Information
AJIL Unbound , Volume 108 , 2014 , pp. 129 - 134
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 2014

References

1 Johnson, Larry D., “Uniting for Peace”: Does It Still Serve Any Useful Purpose?, 108 AJIL Unbound 106 (2014)Google Scholar.

2 Uniting for Peace, GA Res. 377A(V) (Nov. 3, 1950).

3 Security Council Report, Security Council Deadlocks and Uniting for Peace: An Abridged History (2013).

4 Lauria, Joe, Palestinian Options at U.N. Lead to Legal Threat to Israel’s Military, Wall St. J. (Sept. 17, 2011)Google Scholar.

5 See, e.g., a recent example with respect to the crisis in Ukraine, Lederer, Edith M. & Spielmann, Peter James, Ukraine May Turn to UN General Assembly, AP News (Mar. 7, 2014)Google Scholar.

6 GA Res. 68/262, UN Doc. A/RES/68/262 (Mar. 27, 2014).

7 Backing Ukraine’s Territorial Integrity, UN Assembly Declares Crimea Referendum Invalid, UN News Centre (Mar. 27, 2014).

8 Koskenniemi, Martti, The Place of Law in Collective Security, 17 Mich. J. Int’l L. 455 (1996)Google Scholar.

9 UN GAOR, 5th Sess., 299th plen. mtg. at 294, para. 38, UN Doc. A/PV.299 (Nov. 1, 1950).

10 UN Audiovisual Library of International Law, John Foster Dulles on General Assembly Resolution “Uniting for Peace” – 1950, Youtube (June 14, 2013).

11 UN GAOR, 5th Sess., 300th plen. mtg. at 310, para. 34, UN Doc. A/PV.300 (Nov. 2, 1950).

12 See UN GAOR, 5th Sess., 299th plen. mtg. at 305, para. 148, UN Doc. A/PV.299 (Nov. 1, 1950).

13 Id. at 293, para. 27.

14 Member States, Growth in United Nations Membership, 1945-Present, United Nations.

15 VG Ushakov, The Soviet Union and the United Nations (1962).

16 Gregory Ivanovich Tunkin, The Theory of International Law (1970).

17 Security Council Approves ‘No-Fly Zone’ over Libya, Authorizing ‘All Necessary Measures’ to Protect Civilians, by Vote of 10 in Favour with 5 Abstentions, UN Press Release SC/10200 (Mar. 17, 2011).

18 Ambassador Samantha Power, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Remarks at a Security Council Meeting on the Situation in Ukraine (June 24, 2014).

19 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Vladimir Putin’s speech at the Conference of Ambassadors and Permanent Representatives, Youtube (July 1, 2014).

20 Id.

21 WindRose Drive, U.S. Russia Forum 061614, Youtube (June 27, 2014).

22 Martti Koskenniemi, The Politics of International Law (2011).