Abstract

Why and how have ‘Third World’ international lawyers engaged with the law of international organizations? This article considers Georges Abi-Saab’s 1978 work The United Nations Operation in the Congo 1960–1964, an important but largely forgotten intervention in debates about the power and authority of the United Nations (UN) at the height of the post-World War II wave of decolonization. Fusing careful analysis of the legal rules and instruments that underwrote UN operations during the Congo crisis with a narrative reconstruction of the accompanying political and diplomatic negotiations, Abi-Saab’s book examines the organization’s involvement in the conflict following Congo’s formal independence from Belgium in June 1960, both during and after Dag Hammarskjöld’s tenure as UN Secretary-General. This article takes up Abi-Saab’s account of Hammarskjöld’s role in, and management of, the crisis. It demonstrates that Abi-Saab understood the Secretary-General’s office to be not only hedged in by significant ‘constitutional’ constraints on publicly justifiable action but also uniquely equipped to coordinate competing interests and facilitate collective action. It also demonstrates that this dual understanding of the Secretary-General – both ‘legalistic’ and overtly ‘political’ – informed Abi-Saab’s commitment to developing international law in and through international organizations.

中文翻译：

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国际组织：乔治·阿比·萨博（Georges Abi-Saab），刚果危机和联合国非殖民化

摘要

“第三世界”国际律师为何以及如何参与国际组织的法律？本文考虑了乔治·阿比·萨博（Georges Abi-Saab）1978年的著作《 1960年至1964年的联合国刚果行动》，这是在第二次世界大战后非殖民化浪潮最激烈的时候，有关联合国的权力和权威的辩论中的一项重要但基本上被遗忘的干预。阿比·萨博（Abi-Saab）的书仔细分析了在刚果危机期间对联合国行动造成破坏的法律规则和文书，并伴随着政治和外交谈判的叙述性重构，研究了刚果在1960年6月从比利时正式独立后，该组织卷入的冲突，在达格·哈马舍尔德任联合国秘书长期间和之后。本文讨论了阿比·萨博（Abi-Saab）关于哈马舍尔德在危机中的角色和对危机的处理。它表明，阿比·萨博（Abi-Saab）理解秘书长的办公室不仅受到公开可辩驳的行动在宪法上的重大限制，而且具有协调竞争利益和促进集体行动的独特能力。它还表明，对秘书长的这种“法律上的”和公开的“政治上的”双重理解，使阿比·萨博致力于在国际组织中和通过国际组织发展国际法的承诺。