3.6 Advisory Opinions — The Prescribed Decisions

3.6.1 Conditions of Admission of a State to Membership (1948) The question: whether a UN member, while recognizing a state's qualification under Article 4, may make its consent to admission conditional on other (political) demands. Held: Article 4's conditions are exhaustive and legally determinate — the "peace-loving" test and the other listed qualifications; admission is a legal question subject to judicial review; members may not add conditions (demands for diplomatic concessions, relation to elections) — but a member voting against, in the exercise of its judgment that the conditions are not met, acts lawfully. The principles: the legal character of the Charter's membership rules; the political-organ discretion's legal limits. 3.6.2 Competence of the General Assembly regarding Admission to the UN (1950) The question: whether the GA may admit a state to membership when the Security Council has made no recommendation (the veto blocking it). Held: no — Article 4(2)'s route is exclusive: admission by a GA decision "upon the recommendation of the Security Council"; a recommendation not given cannot be supplied by the GA acting alone — the GA may not circumvent the SC's blocking vote. The principles: the Charter's institutional balance (the two- organ division of the admission power); the separation-of-powers logic in the UN's constitution. (The pair with 3.6.1 composes the admission law's whole map: no added conditions,…