Basic Documents in International Law

The Charter of the United Nations was established as a consequence of the United Nations Conference on International Organization held at San Francisco and was brought into force on 24 October 1945. Membership of the United Nations has reached a total of 185 States. The Charter has been the subject of a good deal of interpretation in the half century of its existence. One source of interpretation is the Statement of the Four Sponsoring Powers on Voting Procedure in the Security Council (infra). This statement, dated 7 June 1945, was made in response to a questionnaire submitted by subcommittee III/1/B of the San Francisco Conference and provides the basis for the so-called 'double veto'. Judicial interpretation of the Charter by the International Court of justice has occurred in the following cases: Reparation case, I.C.J. Reports, 1949, p. 174; Admission of a State to the United Nations, ibid., 1947-8, p. 57; Competence of the General Assembly for the Admission of a State to the United Nations, ibid., 1950, p. 4; International Status of South-West Africa, ibid., p. 128; Voting Procedure case, ibid., 1955, p. 67; Admissibility of Hearing of Petitioners, ibid., 1956, p. 23; U.N. Administrative Tribunal case, ibid., 1954, p. 47; Namibia, ibid., 1971, p. 16. For interpretative resolutions of the General Assembly see infra, pp. 236, 308. On the role of law in the Organization see Waldock, 106 Recueil des cours de l'académie de droit international ( 1962, II), pp. 20-38 and Gross, 19 International Organization ( 1965), pp. 537-61. For the Charter of a regional arrangement within the scheme of the United Nations Charter see infra, p. 77 and for the constitution of a Specialized Agency see infra, p. 50. For chronicles of work in the United Nations see the Year-book of the United Nations and the U.N. Chronicle. On the nature of the Charter as a treaty see McNair, Law of Treaties, 1961, pp. 25, 81, 216-18, 221.

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