Argumentation in the UN Security CouncilInternational Law as Process

Abstract

This chapter addresses the process of international legal argumentation within the UN Security Council context. The Council is the central global stage for mitigating international conflict and for managing cooperation on threats to international peace and security. The Council is relatively unique in that it creates, interprets, and enforces international law. The Council’s processes of decision-making are influenced more by international relations, underpinned by diplomacy and consensus, than the norms of international law. To have influence in the Council, international lawyers must think and argue laterally and embrace law as a social process. The leveraging of extralegal factors—arising from international relations, diplomacy, policy considerations, and international values—ultimately shapes the output of the legal process itself.