Dag Hammarskjöld Library at Uppsala University
International Law
- © United Nations
The United Nations Charter calls on the Organization to promote the judicial settlement of disputes between states and encourage the development and codification of international law.
The General Assembly is authorized to establish subsidiary organs for the performance of these functions. The reports of these subsidiary organs are debated in the Sixth Committee which recommends actions to be taken by the Assembly.
The International Court of Justice was created in 1946 as the principal judicial organ of the United Nations to settle disputes submitted to it by States, and to give advisory opinions on legal questions, referred to it by authorised organizations and agencies.
The United Nations has sponsored over 500 multilateral agreements covering a range of subject matter including human rights, disarmament, commodities, refugees, the environment and the law of the sea. These treaties are binding to the countries that ratify them.
Documentation
Charter of the United Nations.
Statute of the International Court of Justice.
Yearbook of the United Nations, Part Four: Legal questions provides an excellent overview of the work of the United Nations with a detailed subject index. A complete collection of yearbooks is held by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, Uppsala, and the Libraries at UN Headquarters in New York and Geneva. Since October 2008 the complete full text collection of The United Nations Yearbooks is available online at http://unyearbook.un.org/.
The official web site of the United Nations serves as a web portal linking to International Law through the headline.
The United Nations Juridical Yearbook includes material of legal nature concerning the United Nations and related intergovernmental organizations. Extcracts from the Yearbook are posted at the UN official web site, section International Law, Codification of International Law. A complete collection of Yearbooks is held by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, Uppsala, and the Libraries at UN Headquarters in New York and Geneva.
Repertory of Practice of United Nations Organs provides a legal interpretation of the decisions of the United Nations under each of the Articles of the UN Charter. It is posted online at the UN official web site.
For documentation on human rights, see DagDok: section Human Rights.
UN Core Treaties is the result of a letter to the leaders of the Members States from the Secretary-General Kofi Annan, where he and his team have identified 25 treaties most central to the spirit and goals of the UN Charter to be the focus of a sustained effort to encourage signature and ratification during the Millennium Summit.
Treaty series. Treaties and international agreements registered or filed and recorded with the Secretariat of the United Nations contains all UN treaties in print from 1946 onwards. A complete collection of treaties is held by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, Uppsala, and the Libraries at UN Headquarters in New York and Geneva. Also available as a database: United Nations Treaty Collection On-Line, se below.
Databases and Indexes
The database United Nations Treaty Collection On-Line contains over 158.000 full text treaties and international agreements registered or filed and recorded with and published by the UN Secretariat since 1946.
The Audiovisual Library of International Law is a multimedia resource which provides high quality international law training and research materials. It consist of three parts: 1. the Historic Archives with significant documents adopted under the auspices of the United Nations since 1945; 2. the Lecture Series with lectures by leading international law scholars; 3. the Research Library linking to treaties, jurisprudence, documents and publications, scholarly writings and research guides.
The UN Library online catalogue UNBISnet contains reports, documents and articles related to UN activities with links to full texts for recent years. Subject search can be performed using relevant terms from the UNBIS THESAURUS.
Printed Indexes