293 / 532
277
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.