10.4 UNITED NATIONS MATERIALS

10.4.1 General form for constitutive documents of the United Nations

The general form for citing constitutive documents of the United Nations is as follows:

Element	Full name	Article reference
Example	Charter of the United Nations,	art 27

10.4.2 General form for United Nations resolutions

Cite resolutions and decisions of the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council and Trusteeship Council according to this rule.

Element	Title (if applicable)	Resolution number	Year	Pinpoint reference
Examples	Universal Declaration of Human Rights	GA Res 217A	(1948)	, art 2
	Resolution on the Definition of Aggression	GA Res 3314	(1974)
		SC Res 2397	(2017)	, preamble
Rule	10.4.2(a)	10.4.2(b)	10.4.2(c)	10.4.2(d)

(a) Title

Give the title in italics. Security Council resolutions generally do not have official titles in which case do not include a title.

(b) Resolution number

Give the resolution number. If a session number is given (found in roman numerals after the resolution number), do not include this.

Use the following abbreviations: “GA Res” for General Assembly resolutions; “SC Res” for Security Council resolutions; “ESC Res” for Economic and Social Council resolutions; and “T Res” for Trusteeship Council resolutions.

(c) Year

Include the year of the document within round brackets at the end of the citation.

(d) Pinpoint reference

Include any pinpoint reference after the year.

10.4.3 General form for other United Nations materials

In general, it is sufficient to cite other United Nations materials using the United Nations document number.

Early United Nations materials, however, do not have document numbers. When citing such material, include the session number.

Element	Author/title	Session number (if applicable)	United Nations document number	Date	Pinpoint reference
Example	Report of the Economic and Social Council for 2005		UN Doc A/60/3	(15 August 2005)	at 5
Rule	10.4.3(a)	10.4.3(b)	10.4.3(c)	10.4.3(d)	10.4.3(e)

(a) Author and title

Include the author’s name if given. Give the title in italics.

(b) Session number

If the document does not have a United Nations document number, give the session number.

Give the session number in Roman numerals after the title followed by a comma. If the document is from a special session, indicate this by putting “S-” before the session number.

(c) United Nations document number

If available, give the United Nations document number exactly as it appears on the document (including slashes and full stops). Preface the number with “UN Doc”.

(d) Date

Include the full date of the document within round brackets at the end of the citation.

(e) Pinpoint reference

Include any pinpoint reference after the year.

10.4.4 International Law Commission

Cite material in the Yearbook of the International Law Commission (YILC) in this way:

Element	Document title	Year	Volume number	part (if applicable)	Abbrev	Page number	Pinpoint reference
Examples	2269th Meeting – International liability for injurious consequences arising out of acts prohibited by international law	[1992]	vol 1		YILC	97	at [42]
	Diplomatic Protection – First report on diplomatic protection, by Mr John R Dugard, Special Rapporteur	[2000]	vol 2	, pt 1	YILC	205	at [31]
Rule	10.4.4(a)	10.4.4(b)	10.4.4(c)	10.4.4(d)		10.4.4(e)	10.4.4(f)

(a) Document title

Give the title of the document in italics with spelling and capitalisation as it appears on the title page of the book (unless the original is in all capitals, in which case capitalise only the first letter of significant words). A subtitle may be preceded by a colon if it is not preceded by any punctuation mark on the title page. Remove any unnecessary punctuation from the title.

(b) Year

Give the year of the yearbook in square brackets.

(c) Volume number

Give the volume of the yearbook. As the yearbook is divided into both volumes and parts, indicate that the number is a volume number by putting “vol” before it.

Note that volume 1 contains a summary of the International Law Commission’s meetings and volume 2 contains reports to the General Assembly.

(d) Part

If the volume being cited is divided into parts, write “pt” and then give the part number. Separate the volume and part numbers with a comma.

(e) Page number

Give the page number on which the document being cited begins.

(f) Pinpoint reference

Where available, pinpoint to paragraph numbers. Pinpoint in accordance with rule 3.2.8.