Nemo auditur propriam turpitudinem allegans is a civil law maxim[1] which may be translated into English as "no one can be heard to invoke his own turpitude"[2] or "no one shall be heard, who invokes his own guilt".[3] The maxim operated with another, in pari causa turpitudinis cessat repetitio (where both parties are guilty, no one may recover), to preclude a court from intervening in a dispute involving an unlawful transaction.[2][3]
On 30 June 1950, during the 475th meeting of the United Nations Security Council when discussing the validity of resolutions made in the absence of one of the permanent members, the French delegate invoked the maxim.[4]
At the 475th meeting of the Council on June 30, 1950, the representative of France, commenting on the above-mentioned statement of the Soviet Government, invoked the old adage of Roman law, "Nemo auditur propriam turpitudinem allegans," and observed that "the delegation of the Soviet Union, by abandoning the Council, has abandoned the Charter. When it returns to the one and to the other, it will find again its right of speech, of criticism, of vote and of veto. So long as it has not done so, the U.S.S.R. Government has no legal or moral basis for contesting the action of the United Nations." Security Council, Official Records, 5th Year, No. 17, p. 8.