Peaceful Settlement of Disputes

Two neighbours fall out over a shared wall and go to a mediator instead of a magistrate. Two states fall out over a shared border, and under the UN Charter they are expected to do something very similar before anyone reaches for a weapon. Article 2(3) does not merely hope that states behave this way, it makes peaceful settlement an obligation. Every method you study next in this module, negotiation, mediation, arbitration, the ICJ, even the Security Council's power to act, exists because of the one rule this topic explains.

In two minutes

The UN Charter requires member states to settle their international disputes by peaceful means, and Chapter VI supplies the recognised methods for doing so, in an order that leaves as much control as possible with the parties themselves.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Political Science – III: International Relations on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.