Keywords
International Law
Effectiveness
Foreign Policy
UN Charter
United Nations
How to Cite
Abstract
For the last ten years, the United Nations Organization has been discussing the need of reform1, and that discussion has become more important as the world lives now –contrary to the purposes of international law– an evident situation of
insecurity and disorder.
In analyzing the problem of effectiveness of international law and international rules dealing with security and defense3, it is worth asking whether not only the institutions and structure of the United Nations Organization (UN) shall be reformed, but also whether its legal and juridical constitution, that is, the United Nations Charter (hereinafter the UN Charter) shall be reformed as well. And the answer is yes, but cautioning that any reform will have only a political impact, that sometimes will be tantamount to a juridical one and sometimes not. After summing up some proposals brought in by some States as well as the overall reform project, this essay tries to explain the international law that is effective, by ultimately identifying an axiom, and by briefly suggesting some proposals that take into account a point of balance between a set of realistic international norms and the current geopolitical scenario, which entails mainly two groups of entities: first, a set of democratic regimes versus a set of non-democratic regimes; and second, a set of high income entities versus a set of middle and low income entities5. Such political and economic reality makes the functioning of the UN Charter —as designed today— a failing one as it does not respond justly and efficiently to the challenges of the current situation.
This essay that seeks to answer questions related to the United Nations reform effectiveness is divided in two sections. The first section is the introductory one where the state of the question and the definition of some terms are presented. The second section which is divided in two sub-sections contains a synthesis that explains the state of the question and the analytical part where the reader will find the bulk of my essay and my main suggestions regarding the state of the question.
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