The Security Council is unapologetically political but it is also obligated to act ‘in conformity with the principles of justice and international law’ as stipulated in the very first provision of the United Nations Charter. Scholarship to date has largely ignored the procedural context of Security Council decisions, notwithstanding it provides the very structure within which those decisions, and the politics that underpin them, take place. Moving beyond the peace versus justice debate, this work will examine the competing imperatives of international justice and the very modus operandi of the Security Council as it has evolved over time as a matter of custom and practice.