Judging the Security Council

Should the International Court of Justice (ICJ) “judicially review” Security Council decisions? The question, once fanciful, is now being asked seriously by litigants in and judges on the World Court, nonpermanent members of the Security Council that consider it an “undemocratic” body acting as “a cloak for a new form of imperialism,” and scholars worried about its recent “quasi-legislative” or “quasi-judicial” acts. The recent throng of commentators and advocates includes students of realpolitik warning the Court against any unrealistic attempt to transform the United Nations collective security scheme into a constitutional structure of checks and balances, and legalists grasping hopefully for hints of Marbury v. Madison in recent World Court pronouncements.