Scott P Sheeran

International Law, Peace Agreements and Self-Determination: The Case of The Sudan

This article considers whether the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement for the Sudan (the CPA) gives rise to binding obligations for the parties under international law. The legitimacy and effectiveness of the CPA, and the avoidance of a return to bloody civil war, depends significantly on the Agreement giving rise to legal obligations. While it has been held in arbitration that the CPA is not a treaty, this article suggests that it is a binding international agreement and further that there are obligations concerning the outstanding referendum for the people of the Abyei region. The legal issues of the CPA are more complex than they at first appear and they engage deeper and broader questions of the role of international law. The article will suggest among other things that the Sudan situation demonstrates it is difficult to draw immutable general rules in abstraction about the international law relating to peace agreements and to self-determination.

A Constitutional Moment?: United Nations Peacekeeping in the Democratic Republic of Congo

The United Nations (UN) is the worlds most prominent international organization, and a key issue is its responsibility under international law. The contemporary growth in UN powers and activities has not been matched by parallel developments in accountability and checks and balances within the UN legal order. This was recently brought to the fore in the instance of UN peacekeepers providing support to Congolese army forces responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. It became a significant public issue and the Secretary-General eventually withdrew UN support from a unit of the Congolese army. This article demonstrates that this withdrawal of support by the Secretary-General represents a constitutional moment for the United Nations. It confirmed a key premise that the Secretary-General is normatively constrained under the Charter, including by the Organizations obligations, when implementing the decisions of the Security Council. This is a legal development which engages a number of emerging and uncertain areas of international law relating to the United Nations, including the UNs constitutional law, the responsibility of international organizations, the substantive obligations of the Organization, and the role of international law in peace and security. Recognizing this important development not only confirms the Secretary-Generals legal responsibility under the Charter, it reinforces the view of the Charter as a living instrument and provides an effective and important means for incorporating the law of responsibility into the UN constitutional order and a check upon the expansive application of the Security Councils implied powers doctrine.