The United Nations (UN) has worked systematically to explain the relationship between the rule of law and human rights since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted in 1948. The rule of law was not mentioned in the 1945 UN Charter, but human rights were, and the rule of law was for the first time mentioned in the UDHR. Several resolutions adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) have created a strong nexus between the two concepts, as discussed in this article. However, there is still no authoritative definition of the rule of law, though some features of the rule of law are respected at the national level. In its progressive expansion of the meaning of the term rule of law, the UN has made a distinction between the rule of law at the national and international levels, and in its Declaration on the Rule of Law at the National and International Levels from 2012, the UNGA went further and made clear that the rule of law applies internationally. Despite attempts from the UNGA to contribute to the definition there is no agreed definition of what the rule of law implies at the international level. This article uses the former UN Secretary-General’s definition of the rule of law from 2004 as a point of departure to explain the development of the rule of law at a national and international level. At the international level, the UN Security Council and the International Court of Justice are addressed; both have played a crucial role in developing the rule of law but not enough to fully alter the vision of the State and its sovereignty in international law.