Petulant and Contrary: Approaches by the Permanent Five Members of the UN Security Council to the Concept of 'threat to the peace' under Article 39 of the UN Charter

Aside from self-defence, a UN Security Council authorisation under Chapter VII is the only exception to the prohibition on the use of force. Authorisation of the use of force requires the Security Council to first determine whether that situation constitutes a ‘threat to the peace’ under Article 39. The Charter has long been interpreted as placing few bounds around how the Security Council arrives at such determinations. As such commentators have argued that the phrase ‘threat to the peace’...