CYIL 2014

ARE INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS BOUND BY INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS… It is accepted in the literature 40 and State practice 41 that international legal personality can be granted to international organisations explicitly or implicitly, 42 whereas the implicit way is far more the normal case. Nevertheless, there are two unsettled issues: what are the aspects indicating the personality and what are its consequences, i.e. does having international legal personality entail certain inherent competences? The two schools of thought which have developed in the doctrine on these questions are the “objective” theory and the “subjective” (“will”) theory. 43 Both are based to a certain extent on the Reparations for Injuries Opinion of the ICJ, but come to diverging results when assessing the above mentioned questions. Most proponents of the subjective theory, to which the will of Member States is the decisive element, do not consider any competences as being inherent. In their opinion for determining the legal status and capacities of international organisations only the will of the founding entities as expressed in the founding document is decisive. Thus no capacities can be “inherent”, as they must result explicitly or implicitly from the founding document. The objective theory regards legal personality as given when certain objective criteria are fulfilled 44 and considers at least some of the capacities as arising from the very personality 45 – irrespective of the will of the founders, 46 but still somehow respecting possible functional and practical limitations. 47 40 KLABBERS, Jan. Introduction to International Institutional Law . Supra note 27, pp. 42 et seq. ; ČEPELKA, Čestmír, ŠTURMA, Pavel. Mezinárodní právo veřejné . 1. ed. Praha: C. H. Beck, 2008, pp. 78 et seq .; MALENOVSKÝ, Jiří. Mezinárodní právo veřejné: jeho obecná část a poměr k jiným právním systémům, zvláště k právu českému . Supra note 25, pp. 146 et seq .; BROWNLIE, Ian. Principles of Public International Law . Sixth Edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 648 et seq . 41 It can be observed that continuously more and more international organisations are being granted international legal personality explicitly. This applies for example to the EU (via changes introduced by the Lisbon Treaty) or the ICC (Article 4(1) ICC Statute: „The Court shall have international legal personality“ ); in this sense NAERT, Frederik. International Law Aspects of the EU’s Security and Defence Policy . Supra note 37, pp. 284 et seq . 42 Reparations for Injuries Suffered in the Service of the United Nations , I.C.J. Reports 1949, p. 180; SEIDL-HOHENVELDERN, Ignaz; LOIBL, Gerhard. Das Recht der Internationalen Organisationen einschliesslich der Supranationalen Gemeinschaften . Supra note 25, para. 0307 and paras. 0324-0326. 43 Cf. RAMA-MONTALDO,Manuel. International Legal Personality and Implied Powers of International Organizations. British Yearbook of International Law . 1970, 44, pp. 111 et seq .; SEYERSTED, Finn. International Personality of Intergovernmental Organisations. Do Their Capacities Really Depend upon Their Constitution? Indian Journal of International Law . 1965, vol. 4, pp. 1-75. 44 Basically these criteria are met when international organs are created which may assume their own obligations. Cf. SEYERSTED, Finn. International Personality of Intergovernmental Organisations. Do Their Capacities Really Depend upon Their Constitution? Supra note 44, p. 53. 45 RAMA-MONTALDO, Manuel. International Legal Personality and Implied Powers of International Organizations. Supra note 44, pp. 111-155. Similarly, but somehow arguing in favour of inherent capacities based on functional necessity, see BEKKER, Peter H. The legal position of intergovernmental organizations: a functional necessity analysis of their legal status and immunities . Boston: M. Nijhoff, 1994, pp. 57-83. 46 SEYERSTED, Finn. International Personality of Intergovernmental Organisations. Do Their Capacities Really Depend upon Their Constitution? Supra note 44, pp. 1-75; WHITE, Nigel D. The law of

international organisations . New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996, esp. pp. 28-29. 47 WHITE, Nigel D. The law of international organisations . Supra note 47, pp. 52-53.

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