How should the International Court of Justice (ICJ) address UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions? Outside internal organisational matters, these resolutions are formally non-binding, soft law instruments. However, they have played an important role in the Court’s decisions, especially those concerning the self-determination of peoples. The contribution of resolutions to this right was first recognised in Namibia in 1971.1 In Western Sahara in 1975, the Court used three resolutions to effectively define the legal context.2 The Chagos Advisory Opinion of 25 February 2019,3 though, has taken this reliance even further. In this opinion, a single resolution, the Declaration on Granting Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples of 1960,4 was central in establishing the applicable law. Moreover, it assumed this pivotal role despite multilateral treaty obligations under the UN Charter that were both relevant and binding on all states concerned.