The Charter of the United Nations

• New edition of the authoritative, article-by-article account of the most important treaty in international relations
• Covers the legislative history, interpretation, and practical application of every UN Charter provision
• Addresses the impact of recent developments in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as UN reform and the responsibility to protect
• Written by a team of leading scholars and practitioners

New to this edition

• A new chapter on UN reform and coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the responsibility to protect, and the creation of the Human Rights Council

Readership: International lawyers; scholars and students of international law and international relations; diplomats and international civil servants; historians, political scientists, and journalists

Edited by Bruno Simma, Judge at the International Court of Justice, The Netherlands, Daniel-Erasmus Khan, Professor of Public Law, European Law, and International Law, University of the Bundeswehr Munich, Germany, Georg Nolte, Professor of Public International Law, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany, Germany, and Andreas Paulus, Judge at Germany's Constitutional Court

Bruno Simma is a Judge at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. He was formerly Professor of International Law and European Community Law and Director of the Institute of International Law at the University of Munich and Professor of Law at the University of Michigan.

Daniel-Erasmus Khan is Professor of Public Law, European Law, and International Law at the University of the Bundeswehr in Munich.

Georg Nolte is Professor of Public International Law at the Humboldt University in Berlin.

Andreas Paulus is a Judge at Germany's constitutional court. He was formerly Professor of Public and International Law at the University of Gottingen and co-director of its Institute of International and European Law.

Review(s) from previous edition

"The project Simma has put together is excellent and will be very useful ... Simma has gathered virtually all of the leading experts and ... this will be a definitive work. Tom Franck, Professor of International Law, New York University

"The book may be recommended as an important source of information on the interpretation and application of the UN Charter over years. Simma and his colleagues should be praised for their coherent presentation of the Commentary." - Netherlands International Law Review

"This massive volume will be familiar to some readers in its earlier German version, first published in 1991. It now appears in an excellent English translation which does full justice to the quality of the scholarship of some 60 German-speaking international lawyers...a book whose encyclopaedic quality will make it a standard reference work on what remains for international lawyers probably the most important treaty of the twentieth century...a series of essays that are informative and authoritative and often range well beyond the confines of the Charter itself...the whole work has clearly benefited from very high editorial standards. It deserves a wide readership and will prove an essential text for any international law library." - International and Comparative Law Quarterly

"...remarkably accessible. The reader is guided through the legislative history, general meaning and specific problems. This combination of detail and clarity combine to produce an invaluable work of reference for practitioners and a fascinating study for any academic." - Law Quarterly Review

Volume I
Preface
Introduction
Abbreviations
Text of the Charter
Text of the ICJ Statute
The History of the United Nations
The Interpretation of the Charter
Preamble
I: Purposes and Definitions
II: Membership
III: Organs
IV: The General Assembly
V: The Security Council
VI: Pacific Settlement of Disputes
VII: Action with Respect to Threats to the Peace, Breaches of the Peace, and Acts of Aggression
VIII: Regional Arrangements
Volume II
IX: International Economic and Social Co-operation
X: The Economic and Social Council
XI: Declaration regarding Non-Self-Governing Territories
XII: International Trusteeship System
XIII: The Trusteeship Council
XIV: The International Court of Justice
XV: The Secretariat
XVI: Miscellaneous Provisions
XVII: Transitional Security Arrangements
XVIII: Amendments
XIX: Ratification and Signature
Rules of Procedure of the General Assembly
Table of Cases
Index