Bardo Fassbender

The United Nations Charter as the Constitution of the International Community

This book, written by one of the leading participants of the debate on a “constitutionalization” of international law, explains why the Charter of the United Nations must be understood as the constitution of the international community, and the legal consequences arising from that characterization.

UN Security Council Reform and the Right of Veto : A Constitutional Perspective

This book is a contribution to the discussion of a constitutional reform of the United Nations, a discussion rekindled by the end of the Cold War and the significant involvement of the UN in international peacemaking and peacekeeping since the Kuwait crisis. Like the new debate, the work focuses on the Security Council, its composition and possible enlargement, its decision-making process and competences, and its relationship with the General Assembly and the International Court of Justice. Particular regard is given to the right of veto of the permanent members of the Security Council, which is seen as the central, and most problematic, feature of the present constitution of the UN. The work describes and analyzes the reform discussion as it has taken place at the UN since 1991. The different proposals made by governments, NGOs and individual scholars are evaluated by applying a number of standards and concepts ensuing from a perception of the UN Charter as constitution of the international community. Thus, the study advances a comprehensive constitutional theory of the UN and redefines the place of the Charter in contemporary international law. Its author was awarded a prize by the Faculty of Law of Humboldt University for having submitted the best dissertation in law in 1997-98.

Securing Human Rights? : Achievements and Challenges of the UN Security Council

Throughout the first decades of its existence, many held the view that the UN Security Council would in some senses automatically encourage the protection of human rights by maintaining international peace. However, since the end of the Cold War there have been growing concerns that the Council is a force with the potential to do harm to the cause of human rights, even to the extent of violating the rights of individuals. The chapters of this volume take a closer look at these two sides of the Security Councils involvement in human rights: both its efforts to promote and enforce human rights, and its actions that, with the Intention of maintaining and restoring international peace, also have the potential to jeopardize human rights. The book represents a collection of individual views and appraisals of how the Council has dealt with human rights issues in the post-Cold War period, particularly in the cases of the economic sanctions imposed on Iraq and the targeted sanctions directed against the Taliban and the supporters of the Al Qaeda Network. Written by experts in the field of international law, they are both positive and negative, critical and analytical. Together they offer a selection of different perspectives and evaluate the contribution of the Security Council to the promotion of human rights, highlighting possible avenues for improvement. With contributions by Bardo Fassbender, Daphna Shraga, Vera Gowlland-Debbas, Annalisa Ciampi, Erika de Wet and Salvatore Zappala.

On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams: The Project of a Reform of the UN Security Council after the 2005 World Summit

The article analyzes the reform plans for the United Nations (UN) Security Council following the 2005 World Summit. The author discusses the impact of the conflicting views of UN member states on the implementation of the reform plans. The implications of the delay in the implementation of the reform plans on international relations are also discussed.

Written versus unwritten: two views on the form of an international constitution

Today, concepts of constitutionalism are widely used in international legal scholarship, both to describe and to promote changes in the international legal order in support of the rule of law, the protection of human rights and other common values of the international community. Against this background, the present chapter deals with a question so far addressed only cursorily — the “writtenness” of international constitutional law. Can we assume the existence of an “unwritten” international constitution, or does the very concept of a constitution in the modern sense require that a constitution is laid down in written form? The chapter discusses the importance of “writtenness” in modern constitutionalism and addresses the “English exception”, that is the absence, in the United Kingdom, of a document called “the constitution”. The chapter concludes with a plea for taking the constitutional character of the UN Charter more seriously, arguing that the idea of an unwritten constitution of the international community does not provide a viable alternative.

Völkerrechtsfähigkeit und Völkerrechtsvergesslichkeit der deutschen Länder: Neue Erscheinungsformen des "offenen Bundesstaates"

Das Grundgesetz hat den Landern eigene volkerrechtliche Beziehungen und damit eine eigene Volkerrechtssubjektivitat ermoglicht. An der deutschen bundesstaatlichen Tradition seit 1871 orientiert, sah der Verfassunggeber diese Volkerrechtsfahigkeit als ein konstitutives Element der Staatlichkeit der Lander an. Doch haben die Lander von ihren volkerrechtlichen Kompetenzen in den vergangenen sechs Jahrzehnten kaum Gebrauch gemacht. Stattdessen haben sie in ihren Ausenbeziehungen neue, informelle Handlungsformen entwickelt, die pragmatisch besonders der Wirtschaftsforderung dienen. Auch nach ausen hin betatigen sich die Lander primar als „offentliche Dienstleister“. Kann in dieser Entwicklung eine Erneuerung des „offenen Bundesstaates“ des Grundgesetzes gesehen werden?

Konstitutionalisierung in Zeiten globaler Krisen

Globale Krisen setzen nationale und volkerrechtliche konstitutionelle Errungenschaften unter Druck. Wie verandern sie die Rolle der Gerichte und von Politik bzw. Governance im und jenseits des Staates? Fuhren globale Krisen nur zu einer Erosion der konstitutionellen Idee oder konnen sie auch als Katalysator fur (neue) konstitutionelle Ordnungen begriffen werden? Die Beitrage des Bandes geben interdisziplinare Antworten auf diese Fragen. Sie beleuchten die Dynamik im europaischen Verfassungsrecht ebenso wie bestimmte demokratische und rechtsstaatliche Krisenphanomene und Losungsstrategien. Zudem nehmen sie zu unterschiedlichen Aspekten der Krisenpravention und -bewaltigung durch ein konstitutionalisiertes Volkerrecht Stellung. Mit Beitragen von: Jonathan Bauerschmidt, Tatjana Chionos, Julia Domnick, Constance Grewe, Sue Gonzalez Hauck, Daniel Kuchler, Michael Wolfgang Muller, Jan Hauke Plassmann, Bettina Rentsch, David Roth-Isigkeit und Christopher Unseld.

Zulässigkeit und Begrenzung militärischen Handelns aus völkerrechtlicher Perspektive

Das gegenwartige Volkerrecht (das in erster Linie zwischen den Staaten geltende Recht) regelt die Zulassigkeit und Begrenzung militarischen Handelns in drei unterschiedlichen Normkomplexen: 1. dem zwischenstaatlichen Gewaltverbot, das bewaffnete Konflikte zwischen Staaten verhindern will (ius ad bellum), 2. dem in bewaffneten Konflikten anwendbaren Recht (ius in bello), humanitares Volkerrecht, und 3. dem internationalen Recht zum Schutz der Menschenrechte. Dabei kommen die Rechtsnormen des zweiten und dritten Komplexes grundsatzlich parallel zur Anwendung. Uberwiegend sind diese Regeln, aus denen sich Verpflichtungen sowohl fur die Staaten als auch fur Individuen ergeben, in von den Staaten abgeschlossenen volkerrechtlichen Vertragen niedergelegt, doch gibt es auch gewohnheitsrechtliche Normen, die kraft kontinuierlicher Ubung und einer Rechtsuberzeugung der Staaten gelten.

Voting Right and Decision-Making Procedures

In the organs of the United Nations (Principal Organs, Subsidiary Organs, Treaty Bodies), the principle of equal voting power applies. In accordance with the notion of legal equality of states, the UN Charter has retained the principle of equal voting power of all member states. Weighted voting , a method which can apply different criteria for the allocation of votes, was first introduced in the nineteenth century in European federal systems. The equal voting power of member states in the UN was increasingly criticized, when, in the wake of decolonization, a great number of territorially very small and/or sparsely populated states were admitted to the UN. Substantive decisions of the Security Council require an affirmative vote of nine members (out of fifteen), including the concurring votes of the permanent members (Art. 27 (3) of the UN Charter). Keywords: equal voting power ; Security Council ; United Nations; weighted voting