Melbourne Law School - Theses

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The Security Council's legislative phase and the rise of emergency international law-making

HOOD, ANNA ( 2014)

In this thesis I look at the phenomenon of Security Council legislation and argue that it can be understood as a form of emergency international law-making that is analogous to forms of executive emergency law-making that are found in domestic jurisdictions in times of crisis. Flowing from this central argument are three subsidiary arguments. The first is that, when understood as a form of emergency law-making, it is possible to see that the Council’s legislative practice conforms, in many respects, to Carl Schmitt’s theory on the state of exception. The second is that there are a number of normative ideas embedded in emergency law theories that can be applied to the Council’s legislative activity to lessen its Schmittian tendencies, at least to a certain extent. The final subsidiary argument is that understanding Security Council legislation as a form of emergency international law-making facilitates an examination of the conditions that give rise to emergencies and emergency law-making and this examination reveals assumptions that are made about speed, risk and universal threats in the construction of international emergencies and the development of emergency international law-making.