Abstract :
On 16 December 2009, the UN General Assembly, upon recommendation by the
Sixth Committee, adopted its annual resolution on the ‘rule of law at the national
and international levels.’1 Surprising as it may sound, this was only the fourth time
that the General Assembly considered this topic, as the agenda item had only been
introduced in fall 2006 by the delegations of Liechtenstein and Mexico as a follow-
up to the substantive references made to the rule of law in the 2005 World
Summit Outcome. Obviously, the General Assembly had previously worked on
rule of law issues, in particular under its Charter mandate relating to the codification
and progressive development of international law. But until the introduction
of the generic agenda item in 2006, the Assembly’s work on the rule of law was
primarily driven by subject-specific initiatives, in particular the elaboration of international
conventions. The new item provided an opportunity for the General
Assembly to discuss the issue more broadly and to strengthen the coordination
and coherence of United Nations activities in furtherance of the rule of law in a
holistic manner.
