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International organisations are a central component of modern international society. This book provides a concise account of the principles and norms of international law applicable to the intergovernmental organisation (IGO). It defines and explains inter-governmentalism and the role of law in its regulation. The book presents case studies that show how the law works within an institutional order dominated by politics. After a note on the key relationship between the IGO and its member states, it examines the basic relationship between the UN and states in terms of membership through admissions, withdrawal, expulsion, suspension, and representation. The debate about the extent of the doctrine of legal powers is addressed through case studies. Institutional lawmaking in the modern era is discussed with particular focus on at the impact of General Assembly Resolutions on outer space and the Health Regulations of the World Health Organization. Non-forcible measures adopted by the UN and similar IGOs in terms of their legality (constitutionality and conformity to international law), legitimacy and effectiveness, is covered next. The different military responses undertaken by IGOs, ranging from observation and peacekeeping, to peace enforcement and war-fighting, are discussed in terms of legality and practice. The book also considers the idea of a Responsibility to Protect and the development of secondary rules of international law to cover the wrongful acts and omissions of IGOs. It ends with a note on how the primary and secondary rules of international law are upheld in different forms and mechanisms of accountability, including courts.
international law produced by states and, in fact, are compatible with the list of sources in Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice of 1945, either as treaty obligations, customs or general principles of law. It is true to say that many resolutions have passed into customary international law, but such an analysis disregards the potential normative value of the resolutions themselves, a value that reflects the autonomy of IGOs. This chapter explores institutional lawmaking in the modern era, with particular focus on General Assembly Resolutions on
of the parties, it is doubtful that it can still be sustained in view of a host of UN General Assembly resolutions, adopted since 2000, calling for fish stocks to be restored or maintained at levels of MSY ‘as determined by their biological characteristics’, without mention of possible qualification by environmental or economic factors. 61 Although the parties to UNCLOS and members of the General
refugee status naturally had as a consequence the denial of international protection. 40 In this case, too, the UN took the path of compromise and, through a specific General Assembly resolution, granted the UNHCR the task of assisting the Algerians in Morocco and Tunisia, 41 leaving the recognition of their status unresolved, however. In this context, France’s position towards the World Refugee Year was ambiguous: the government officially gave its support but very little was done to develop the activities set out in the programme. 42 The plan launched for
realistic possibility, something reaffirmed by Amorim nearly three decades later, it contained a geopolitical logic irresistible to security thinkers in the region. The pressure to pursue some sort of localized cooperation approach to maintaining security in the area was dramatically heightened by the Falklands/Malvinas War of 1982, which ultimately pushed Brazil in 1986 to propose and win approval of a UN General Assembly resolution creating ZOPACAS. By 1994 the members agreed to a relatively inexpensive, but highly symbolic step to retrench ZOPACAS by jointly declaring
were resolute in rejecting the requirement not to give assistance to the Cambodian refugees in Thailand. The final agreement reflected this position and was signed in September 1979 in a climate of increased tension due to the General Assembly resolution according to which the Cambodian government in exile, which the Khmer Rouge was part of, represented the country at the United Nations. 60 In the meantime, the NGO world had also mobilised through the setting up of a consortium of around forty European humanitarian agencies, 61 which was started by an
of the Almaty Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted in 2003. 51 The Declaration repeats the affirmation of the rights of landlocked and transit States as set out in the UN General Assembly Resolutions referred to above. It encourages those States to strengthen their collaborative efforts to address transit transport issues, and calls on other States to assist them. The objectives of the Programme of Action are to
principles of law. Indeed, many resolutions have passed into customary international law, but such an analysis disregards the normative value of the resolutions themselves, a value that more accurately reflects the autonomy of IGOs. This chapter explores institutional lawmaking in the modern era, looking in detail at the impact of General Assembly Resolutions on outer space and the Health Regulations of the World Health Organization (WHO). Both of these are shown to be international laws in their own right and that, in fact, they are paradigmatic of UN lawmaking more
South Korea), calls for a New International Economic Order, and with it the transfer of technology, had largely ceased. However, UNCTAD III, having begun its substantive sessions in the same year as the adoption of the UN General Assembly resolutions on the New International Economic Order and having largely taken place during the 1970s, was not unaffected by the zeitgeist and developing
institutional structure of IGOs, but this does not detract from them potentially having a constitutional base. Constitutions do not necessarily entail a separation of powers (executive, legislative and judicial) and a rule of law. These are basic axioms of a liberal constitutional order, but they are usefully deployed here from a critical perspective. In the case of the UN, the General Assembly acts as a legislative body in a weak sense. Although not accepted as a formal source of law, General Assembly resolutions create a presumption of legality in favour of conduct which