Permanent Neutrality and the UN Security Council

Abstract

This article seeks to analyse the concept of permanent neutrality within the context of the relationship between permanently neutral states and the UN Security Council. In doing so, it draws upon arguments by Austrian legal scholars in the mid-twentieth century and applies them to the contemporary international legal landscape. Accordingly, the concept of permanent neutrality is addressed, including the various means by which it is recognised that a state may assume such a status in law. The article then addresses two central dimensions of this relationship: the interplay between permanent neutrality and Chapter VII of the UN Charter, and the role of a permanently neutral state as a member of the Security Council itself. It shows that, rather than being incompatible with the framework set out in the Charter, permanently neutral states may engage with the Security Council while also adhering to their international legal obligations.