The role of the UN in the codification and progressive development of international law

The contribution is organised in four parts. First, it will provide an overview of the contribution of the UN principal organs to the codification and progressive development of international law. This part will be divided into two legs: the first one will consider the contribution of the GA and, to a minor extent, of the ECOSOC, while the second one will briefly address the contribution of the SC. Secondly, the analysis will focus on the ILC and the forms of codification stemming from its work. Here the blurred nature of the dividing line between ‘codification’ and ‘progressive development,’ as enshrined in the ILC Statute, will be emphasised. Thirdly, the contribution will refer to the role of the ICJ and other UN-related international adjudicative bodies, with special regard to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the elucidation and development of CIL. Finally, a few general considerations will be made pulling the strings of the analysis of the existing practice on the role of the UN in the field, also with a view to considering the prospects for the way forward at a time of enhanced instability and a major concern for the common interests of Nation-States and peoples in the International Society.