Implied Powers of the United Nations. By Rahamatulla Khan. [Delhi, India.

Vikas Publications. 1970].

This book an extended essay on the question of implied powers of the United Nations, which
reviews doctrine and practice, and the several relevant judgments and opinions of the
International Court of Justice and presents the author's conclusions on the nature and extent of
these powers and some suggestions for safeguarding the 'interests of member States in the form
of review machinery' for contested UN decisions, or more frequent resort to the Court. The main
part of the book is an examination of the practice of the UN in the areas of peace-keeping; treaty-
making; suspension, expulsion, forced withdrawal and' partial exclusion; admissions, and
subsidiary organs.

Dr. Khan has nevertheless performed a valuable service to the study of the law of international
organizations by bringing together these different aspects of implied powers. In chapter VII his
discussion about of legal controls of the exercise of implied powers merits expansion, to embrace
an analysis of the effect of illegal acts. The first question is that ‘what are the legal controls over
the exercises of power and abuse of power?’ International Organization always needs to have a
legal basis for their activities which should be in accordance with the principle of attributed or
expressed powers. The organization need to function according to the powers which have been
attributed or expressed in various forms. However, it is not possible to make an exhaustive list of
powers of an organization in the constitution because, any organization for that matter needs to
respond to the development in practice which cannot be foreseen when it is created. 1 Therefore
for this reason other form of powers exists such as customary and implied powers. The doctrine
of implied powers has played a crucial role on the development of the law of the international
organization. The doctrine is the result of “principle of effectiveness” as has been applied by the
International Court of Justice.

Legal Controls or critique of Implied Powers:

There are some limits to the doctrine of implied powers. The first one is that the recourse to the
implied powers concerned must be necessary or essential for the organization to perform its
functions, as has been mentioned in its advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice in
the Reparation For Injuries.

The second limitation is the existence of certain explicit powers in the area concerned. On the
limitation if the implied powers, Campbell has said that “the exercise of powers would have to
be such that it would not substantially encroach on, detract from, or nullify other powers.”2 On
one hand it is difficult to accept that the use of implied powers may violate explicit powers. On
the other hand, if certain powers are enumerated explicitly but their use encounters difficulties, it

1
Shermers, Henry G and Niels M. Blokker., “International Institutional Law- Unity within Diversity ”, 4 th Edition,
Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Netherlands, 2003. at p.g. 175
2
 Campbell, A.I.L. “The Limits of the Powers of the International Organization”, as cited in  Klabbers p. 179.
is arguably too strict to prohibit the organization from using any other powers if this would mean
that otherwise it cannot perform the functions.

The third limitation is that the use of implied powers may not violate fundamental rules and
principles of international law. In support of this argument, the ICJ in the Namibia opinion, the
Council’s power to adopt the resolution in question was limited by ‘certain general conventions
such as those of a humanitarian character.3

  The fourth limitation is that implied powers may not change the distribution of functions within
an organization. This limitation was important in the Certain Expenses case4 in which one of the
core question was the scope of the powers of the General Assembly in the area of maintenance of
international peace and security, which if usually the primary responsibility of the Security
Council.5 In page no 210 the author clearly discuss about this pont.

3
ICJ Rep 1962 pg. 174
4
ICJ Rep 1962 pg. 174
5
Shermers, Henry G and Niels M. Blokker., “International Institutional Law- Unity within Diversity ”, 4th Edition,
Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Netherlands, 2003. p. 180