THE IMPLIED POWERS DOCTRINE AND UN’S NEW MECHANISMS

V. M. Serdiuk

doi:10.26661/2786-5649-2026-2-17

The procedure for amending the text of the Charter of the United Nations is set forth in Chapter XVIII of that document and is safeguarded against haphazard reform. Since any formal amendments are possible only after a unanimous vote by all permanent members of the UN Security Council, the question of whether formal changes to the Charter are possible has long been settled among Member States. However, the international community agrees that a document which serves as the foundation of the world order – and whose primary purpose is to maintain international peace and security – cannot exist in the realities of the postwar era of the last century in isolation from the challenges of today. Under these circumstances, approaches to informal transformation and progressive interpretation deserve close attention, as they allow for preserving the document’s core principles while adapting the organization’s day-to-day practices without requiring amendments to its founding documents. The purpose of this article is to examine the possibility of establishing new procedures within the United Nations and its principal organs outside the framework of statutory reform, through the interpretation of existing powers not explicitly enshrined in the founding instruments. Specifically, the article examines the example of a new procedure introduced in 2022 by Resolution 76/262, “Standing Mandate,” which is designed to strengthen the UN General Assembly’s ability to influence the primary purpose of the United Nations. The article examines the connection between this resolution and the doctrine of implied competence, which may have served as one of the sources for the emergence of this new mechanism through a progressive interpretation of the founding documents. This article examines and analyzes the doctrine of implied competence, the conditions and limitations on its application as established in international law theory, and historical examples of its successful implementation in the practice of the United Nations and the International Court of Justice. In addition, the article examines the impact of the Organization’s subsequent practice, which is decisive for the collective legalization by member states of a particular new procedure and which is an inherent consequence of the application of the doctrine of implied powers.