Understanding UN Security Council Resolutions

United Nations Security Council Resolutions (UNSCR) are most important at an international level and yet they can be difficult to interpret.  They are not treaties.  Understanding of the proceedings at the Council prior to the resolution is essential to reach a proper interpretation.  Furthermore, they are are not subjected to the sort of detailed examination that accompanies the enactment of national legislation.  Pressures of time and politics are also in play.  For an expert view of how interpretation should be approached see:

Michael C. Wood - Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law 1998 - Interpretation of Security Council Resolutions

and for a video presentation see - Michael C. Wood on the Interpretation of UN Security Council Resolutions


Sir Michael Wood QC - 20 Essex Street

Sir Michael is a member of the UN International Law Commission. He was the principal Legal Adviser to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office between 1999 and 2006. During 35 years as a lawyer in the FCO, he attended many international conferences, including the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea.  He spent three years at the United Kingdom Mission to the United Nations in New York, dealing chiefly with Security Council matters. He was Agent for the United Kingdom for a number of years before the European Commission and Court of Human Rights, and UK Agent in cases before the International Court of Justice, as well as in proceedings before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and arbitral tribunals.