Problems of Enforcement of Decisions of the International Court of Justice and the Law of the United Nations

The enforcement of decisions of the International Court of Justice may involve problems that touch upon some of the most delicate areas of both public international law, and the law of the United Nations, at a time when these two systems of law can hardly be considered as totally separate from each other. In the body of general law and practice concerning enforcement of international rules the principle of self-help remains prominent. On the other hand, within the apparently more integrated and institutionalized context of the UN system and this is the field into which we are principally going to venture in the present study one is confronted with highly controversial issues, such as voting procedure in the Security Council, or the relationship between the Council and the International Court of Justice, these issues being part and parcel of the everlasting controversy between law and politics.