Article 96 of the Charter of the United Nations provides:

1. The General Assembly or the Security Council may request the International Court of Justice to give an advisory opinion on any legal question.

2. Other organs of the United Nations and specialized agencies, which may at any time be so authorized by the General Assembly, may also request advisory opinions of the Court on legal questions arising within the scope of their activities.

Article 65(1) of the Statute of the Court correspondingly provides:

Pursuant to Article 96(2) of the Charter, the General Assembly has authorized the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the Interim Committee of the General Assembly, and the Committee on Applications for Review of Administrative Tribunal Judgments, as well as fourteen Specialized Agencies of the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency, to request advisory opinions of the Court. Two of these United Nations organs are not principal organs of the Organization. Of the principal organs of the United Nations other than the Court itself, only the Secretariat has not been authorized to request advisory opinions. The questions this Note accordingly addresses are: Is the General Assembly legally entitled to authorize the Secretary-General, or the Secretariat (and by so doing, its chief administrative officer in whose name the Secretariat acts, the Secretary-General), to request advisory opinions of the Court?