International Organizations and Foreign States: Participants in Civil Law Relations in Russia

2004 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-34
Author(s):  
Vladimir Kanachevskii

AbstractThe author examines the legal status of international organizations and foreign states in trade and commerce in the Russian Federation. The specifi c issues which are touched upon by the author include general problems of the participation of public entities—such as international organizations as legal persons and the immunity of foreign states and international organizations—in civil law relations. The author concludes that domestic legislation should not be considered to be the only source of law for regulating private international relations involving states; practice illustrates that international treaties are also a source of such rules and regulations. Special attention in this article is devoted to characteristic features of the legal personality of international organizations, the sources of law regulating relations in which international organizations participate, the role of domestic law and internal rules of international organization itself, the various aspects of the legal capacity of international organizations as subjects of Russian civil law including agreements involving international organizations, the legal status of their separate divisions, issues relating to the property rights of international organization, and the civil law status of representatives of foreign states attached to international organizations (and their civil servants). The legal base for this research is formed by international treaties, the charters and internal rules of international organizations, and rules of Russian civil legislation as well as decisions of Russian and international judicial bodies. By way of conclusion, the author postulates that it is wise for domestic (and foreign) natural and legal persons, which enter into relations with the international organizations and foreign states, to take into consideration the specifi c nature of the above-mentioned subjects. In practice, this may result in dismissal of a plaintiff 's claim in a RF court where the defendant is an international organization or foreign state. It may thereby be impossible to hold such an organization or state civilly liable (without its consent) for breaching a contractual undertaking.

2019 ◽  
pp. 131-160
Author(s):  
Gleider Hernández

This chapter looks at international organizations, their differences to States, and their position within the international legal order. Today, international organizations exist in virtually all fields of transnational and global collective concern. In the broadest sense, they facilitate international cooperation in all areas from the harmonization of tariffs to the management of delicate ecosystems, and range in their scope from small bilateral commissions regulating transboundary resources to regional security and economic organizations, all the way to the universalist aspirations of the UN. The chapter then considers the question of establishing the legal personality of international organizations under international law, which must be distinguished from the question of whether an international organization may also hold legal personality under the domestic law of a State.


Author(s):  
Schmalenbach Kirsten

This article examines the question of what is the legal basis for granting foreign international organizations legal personality under the law of a state which is neither a party to the founding instrument nor the host state. In the considered case the House of Lords was faced with the task of deciding on the legal personality status of the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) after the organization instituted fraud proceedings against a former Director General in the United Kingdom. As the founding treaty of the AMF had not been incorporated into UK law, the organization was not recognized under domestic law. The House of Lords took recourse to the federal decree of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) which had granted the AMF domestic legal personality.


Author(s):  
Palchetti Paolo

This judgment constitutes one of the most authoritative precedents on the question concerning responsibility of members for acts of the organization. The House of Lords denied the existence of a rule of general international law according to which, in the absence of an express provision in the constitutive treaty excluding the responsibility of the members, they are responsible, jointly and severally, for the breach by the organization of its obligations to third parties. According to the House of Lords, the separate legal personality of an international organization precludes that the members can be held responsible, due to their membership, for the conduct of the organization. The judgment also addresses the question of whether the effects stemming from the possession of a separate legal personality have to be determined by reference to international law or by reference to the domestic law of the forum state.


2004 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niels Blokker

AbstractThe law of international organizations is a field of study full of themes with variations. With respect to a number of key chapters in this field, such as the legal status of international organizations, their institutional structure, powers, decision-making and decisions, sanctions, fundamental principles exist or are being developed. These principles or themes have a large number of variations in the rules and practice of individual organizations. Like in music, the variations in themselves may be interesting as such, but they can only be fully appreciated by not losing sight of the theme. Like in music, the themes in themselves may be interesting as such, but they can only be fully appreciated by also listening carefully to the multicoloured variations. This contribution is devoted to a central theme of the law of international organizations: the relationship between an international organization and its members. Already in the early days of existence of international organizations, this topic has given rise to numerous questions. Many of these have now been answered, but sometimes resurface in contemporary variations. In addition there are new questions. It is useful to first explore briefly the meaning of the word "members". The English word "member" and the French "membre" are both derived from the Latin word "membrum", which means "part of the body". This meaning is important because it indicates clearly that members are part of a whole – a fact which takes us straight to one of the core questions addressed in this article. Members of an international organization are not just members, after all – like the members of a bridge club or a gardening club. In most cases, the members of international organizations are states. How then can members of an international organization be members of a whole when in most cases those members are sovereign states, even if the concept of sovereignty of states is no longer as absolute at it used to be? This is one of the major questions within the field of the law of international organizations. In order to examine this question, this contribution is divided into two parts. Section I will concentrate on the role of members vis-à-vis international organizations. In Section II the focus will shift to the whole of which the members are part; this Section will briefly look at some of the questions involved in giving a certain amount of autonomy to this whole.


Author(s):  
Higgins Dame Rosalyn, DBE, QC ◽  
Webb Philippa ◽  
Akande Dapo ◽  
Sivakumaran Sandesh ◽  
Sloan James

The United Nations (UN) was created by its founding member states when they adopted the UN Charter. Therefore, the legal authority for its existence, status, and possession of legal personality is derived from the role of states as lawmakers in the international system. This chapter discusses the meaning of legal personality and basis for its possession by the UN; status as an international organization; basis for legal personality; consequences of legal personality; position in international law; position in domestic law; what is covered by the legal personality; and the independent competence of subsidiary organs to rely on the UN’s legal personality in international law and such personality granted in municipal law.


Author(s):  
Wessel Ramses A

Legal personality has become a key—and much debated—issue in the law of international organizations. The popular narrative presents the possession of legal personality as a necessary requirement for international organizations to act in a legal sense. Also in the classic case under review here, the Court basically argued that in order for it to be able to assess the possibility of bringing a claim, it should first establish whether the organization has legal personality. At the same time, these days international personality is seen as a characteristic of an international organization. This chapter discusses these issues and also places them in their current context.


2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 448-467
Author(s):  
Esa Paasivirta

This article outlines the contours of the special case of the eu in the context of the general question of the responsibility of a member State of an international organization. The special case of eu member States is connected with the modus operandi of the eu in general, and the fact that the implementation of eu acts is largely carried out by national authorities rather than by the eu relying solely on its own organs. This special case is also connected with the phenomenon of so-called ‘mixed agreements’ to which both the eu and its member States are parties. In both situations, the role of the member States is important and appears as part of the normal conduct of the organization. Against the background of these observations, the paper reviews the central concepts of legal personality, competence and responsibility in order to consider and assess the special case of the eu in a broader international law context. The paper also reviews recent legal developments which bear on the assessment of the special case of the eu.


Author(s):  
Dapo Akande

This chapter examines the legal framework governing international organizations. It begins with an examination of the history, role, and nature of international organizations. It is argued that although the constituent instruments and practices of each organization differ, there are common legal principles which apply to international organizations. The chapter focuses on the identification and exploration of those common legal principles. There is an examination of the manner in which international organizations acquire legal personality in international and domestic law and the consequences of that legal personality. There is also discussion of the manner in which treaties establishing international organizations are interpreted and how this differs from ordinary treaty interpretation. The legal and decision-making competences of international organizations are considered as are the responsibility of international organizations and their privileges and immunities. Finally, the chapter examines the structure and powers of what is the leading international organization—the United Nations (UN).


Author(s):  
Ирина Викторовна Евстафьева

В статье исследуются вопросы попечительства в отношении несовершеннолетних, отбывающих наказание в виде лишения свободы. Проблема, поднимаемая автором настоящей статьи, многогранна, касается различных аспектов отбывания наказания несовершеннолетними в воспитательных колониях и требует комплексного исследования, способного ответить на определенно значимый вопрос: является ли колония законным представителем находящихся в ней несовершеннолетних со всеми вытекающими из статуса законных представителей последствиями. При этом необходимо обращать внимание на специфику правового статуса лиц, отбывающих наказание в воспитательных колониях, которые, во-первых, являются несовершеннолетними, то есть не обладают дееспособностью в полном объеме и нуждаются в особой заботе, защите и представительстве, а во-вторых, осуждены за совершение тяжкого или особо тяжкого преступления, влекущего изоляцию от общества и определенные ограничения и лишения. Отечественное законодательство достаточно детально регламентирует особенности режима отбывания наказания в виде лишения свободы несовершеннолетними, не определяя при этом статуса воспитательных колоний, кем они являются: воспитателями, попечителями или исключительно учреждениями исполнения наказаний. Между тем правильное понимание значения и роли воспитательной колонии в жизни находящихся в ней несовершеннолетних преступников, по мнению автора, поможет избежать ряда проблем, объективно складывающихся в учреждениях подобного рода. С этой точки зрения предлагаемая тема представляет интерес не только для ученых-теоретиков, но и для практиков - сотрудников соответствующих учреждений. Особо следует подчеркнуть, что исследований по данной тематике в специальной литературе нет. Отдельные исследования, встречающиеся в современной литературе, касаются исключительно общего гражданско-правового статуса несовершеннолетних осужденных. Однако это обстоятельство может свидетельствовать только о новизне данной темы, но никак не об отсутствии самой проблемы. The article analyzes the issues of the status of educational colonies as guardians of minors serving a sentence of imprisonment. In fact, the problem raised by the author of this article is multifaceted, concerns various aspects of the serving of punishment by minors in educational colonies and requires a comprehensive study that can answer, it seems, a definitely significant question: whether the colony is the legal representative of the minors in it with all the consequences arising from the status of legal representatives in the form of duties and responsibilities. At the same time, it seems, it is necessary to pay attention to the specifics of the legal status of citizens serving sentences in educational colonies, who, firstly, are minors, i.e. do not have full legal capacity and need special care, protection and representation, and, secondly, are convicted of committing a serious or particularly serious crime, entailing isolation from society and certain restrictions and deprivation. Domestic legislation regulates in sufficient detail the peculiarities of the regime of serving sentences in the form of deprivation of liberty by minors, without determining the status of educational colonies. Who are they: educators, Trustees or only institutions of execution of punishments. Meanwhile, the correct understanding of the importance and role of the educational colony in the life of juvenile offenders in it, according to the author, will help to avoid a number of problems that objectively develop in institutions of this kind. From this point of view, the proposed topic is of interest not only for theoretical scientists, but for practitioners-employees of relevant institutions. It should be emphasized that there are no studies on this subject in the special literature. However, this circumstance can testify only about novelty of the given subject, but in any way about absence of the problem. It seems that the relevance and importance of a problem is not always measured by the number of studies devoted to it. Sometimes these its traits are manifest only under particularly careful consideration.


Author(s):  
Miriam Bak McKenna

Abstract Situating itself in current debates over the international legal archive, this article delves into the material and conceptual implications of architecture for international law. To do so I trace the architectural developments of international law’s organizational and administrative spaces during the early to mid twentieth century. These architectural endeavours unfolded in three main stages: the years 1922–1926, during which the International Labour Organization (ILO) building, the first building exclusively designed for an international organization was constructed; the years 1927–1937 which saw the great polemic between modernist and classical architects over the building of the Palace of Nations; and the years 1947–1952, with the triumph of modernism, represented by the UN Headquarters in New York. These events provide an illuminating allegorical insight into the physical manifestation, modes of self-expression, and transformation of international law during this era, particularly the relationship between international law and the function and role of international organizations.


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