Lauterpacht Lectures 2006: 'The United Nations Security Council and International Law' by Sir Michael Wood KCMG

Sir Michael Wood, KCMG was Legal Adviser to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) between 1999 and 2006. He is now a Senior Fellow of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge and a barrister at 20 Essex Street.

After joining the FCO as an Assistant Legal Adviser in 1970, he was a member of the United Kingdom delegation to many international conferences, including most sessions of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, the Lancaster House Conference on Rhodesia, the "Two-plus-Four" negotiations on German Unification, the Cambodia Peace Conference and the Dayton and Rambouillet Conferences on the former Yugoslavia.

His postings included three years (1981-1984) at the British Embassy in Bonn, and three years (1991-1994) at the United Kingdom Mission to the United Nations in New York, dealing chiefly with Security Council matters. He was Agent for the United Kingdom for a number of years before the European Commission and Court of Human Rights, and Agent in the Lockerbie and Legality of Use of Force cases before the International Court of Justice, as well as in the MOX Plant proceedings before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and the OSPAR and UNCLOS arbitral tribunals.

Links to the lecture papers –

Links to the lecture papers for the three lectures making up the 2006 series can be found below. These papers are subject to editorial revision and a version of the lectures is due to be published by Cambridge University Press as part of the Hersch Lauterpacht Memorial Lecture Series.

First Lecture : The Legal Framework of the Security Council

Tuesday 7 November 2006 
This first lecture considers certain aspects of the basic legal framework of the Security Council, including the nature of the UN Charter (and whether it is the constitution of the international community); the nature of the Council (and whether it is executive, legislative, quasi-judicial); and sui generis. Certain myths surrounding the exercise by the Council of its Chapter VII powers are dispelled and the issue of when decisions of the Council are legally binding is discussed. The lecture concludes by describing the central importance for the system of collective security of Article 103 of the Charter (priority of Charter obligations over obligations under any other agreement).

Lecture 1 Notes (as delivered)

Second Lecture : The Security Council's Powers and their Limits

Wednesday 8 November 2006 
This second lecture focuses on the powers of the Council in the field of the maintenance of international peace and security. Possible limits on these powers are examined, whether derived from the Purposes and Principles of the United Nations or from peremptory norms of general international law (jus cogens). The lecture concludes with a discussion of the checks and balances on the acts of the Council, including questions of justiciability.

Lecture 2 Notes (as delivered)

Third Lecture : The Security Council and the Use of Force

Thursday 9 November 2006 
The third lecture considers the role of the Security Council in the development of international law, and in particular as regards the rules of international law on the use of force (the jus ad bellum). Considered in turn are the general prohibition on the use of force; the use of force by or authorised by the Council; the right of self-defence (including against terrorist groups); and "responsibility to protect". The lecture concludes with some words on reform of the Council.

Lecture 3 Notes (as delivered)