Comment: The Impact of Security Council Resolutions on State Responsibility

Abstract

It is open to the Security Council, as well as to any other political body, to express views on the question whether a certain conduct constitutes an internationally wrongful act or entails certain legal consequences. When the Security Council so proceeds, it does not act as an adjudicator between the States which may have a dispute on this regard. These statements by the Security Council are assessments by a political body that do not settle any dispute, since the Security Council has not been given powers to this effect.¹ They have a different function: that of providing a basis for taking action under the UN Charter with regard to “any dispute, the continuance of which is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security” (Article 33) or “any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression” (Article 39).

However, when the Security Council adopts a resolution concerning a certain dispute in the exercise of its functions for maintaining peace, the content of the resolution may impinge on the application of the law of State responsibility.