The United Nations Organisation

When a war breaks out or a famine is declared, the news says that the UN has met, condemned, sent observers or imposed sanctions. But who exactly is the UN: a world government, a club of countries, or a court? The answer is that it is a treaty-based organisation with six principal organs, each with a separate job, and a student who can name what each organ can and cannot do has most of the chapter.

In two minutes

The United Nations, created by the UN Charter in 1945, is an organisation of sovereign States with six principal organs (General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, Trusteeship Council, International Court of Justice and Secretariat); only the Security Council can take decisions that bind all members, and it does so under the veto of its five permanent members.

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 Public International Law on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.