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Gazzini, Tarcisio --- "Personality of International Organizations" [2011] ELECD 518; in Klabbers, Jan; Wallendahl, Åsa (eds), "Research Handbook on the Law of International Organizations" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Research Handbook on the Law of International Organizations

Editor(s): Klabbers, Jan; Wallendahl, Åsa

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847201355

Section: Chapter 2

Section Title: Personality of International Organizations

Author(s): Gazzini, Tarcisio

Number of pages: 23

Extract:

2 Personality of international organizations
Tarcisio Gazzini



INTRODUCTION

The legal personality of international organizations is a classic but always
topical and complex theme in international law, a theme to which a remark-
able number of works have been dedicated and which continues to attract the
attention of governments, international organizations themselves, and schol-
ars.1 It is nowadays undisputed that international organizations may possess
legal personality in international law ­ although not identical to that of states
­ as well as in national legal systems. It is equally undisputed that international
organizations may conclude international treaties, bring and receive interna-
tional claims, send and receive legations, and enjoy privileges and immunities
before national courts. However, many questions still remain unsettled or
controversial, including how an international organization acquires interna-
tional legal personality; in what way such a personality is different from that
of states; and how the responsibility for internationally wrongful acts is to be
allocated between the organization and its members.
This chapter discusses the process through which an international organi-
zation may acquire international legal personality and the main features of
such a personality. It also touches upon issues of international responsibility
and immunities that are fully treated elsewhere in this book. It finally deals
with the legal personality international organizations may enjoy within the
jurisdiction of member and non-member states.


INTERNATIONAL LEGAL PERSONALITY OF
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
The traditional departing point to discuss the international legal personality of
international organizations is the Reparation for Injuries advisory opinion
delivered by ...