Online Appendix: Beyond-Chapter-VII

The Security Council is considered the only organ within the United Nations that can issue legally binding decisions for states. With over two thousand resolutions adopted, the UNSC has developed a practice of formalistic legal language. However, the conditions under which resolutions are considered binding are controversial. By empirically examining all resolutions adopted between 1946 and 2023, we shed light on how the Council uses various linguistic markers considered indicative of legal bindingness. We find that the Council has developed a clear practice of explicitly referencing Chapter VII when it intends to take legally binding decisions and when it first establishes a peace mission. This practice has been consistent for the past two and a half decades. The Council lacks, however, a clearly discernible and consistent practice where it adopts ostensibly legally binding decisions without explicit references to Chapter VII. These results have consequences for the debate on the legal validity of the resolutions.