The story of the ICJ’s  Reparation for Injuries Advisory Opinion is made up of

three parts, although the Court’s opinion concentrates on only one. This is the story
of a Swedish diplomat and his death in 1948; a lost opportunity for Israeli-Arab
relations; and the rise of the United Nations as a pivotal international organization.
Count Folke Bernadotte’s murder was a tragedy because of his previous heroics.
But the case before the ICJ as a consequence of that murder provided a critical link
for the further development of international law.
REPARATIONS FOR INJURIES: COUNT BERNADOTTE
Count Folke Bernadotte of Wisburg, a relative of King Gustaf of Sweden, had
rescued more than 30000 prisoners from German concentration camps in World
War II through mediation. As vice-chairman of the Swedish Red Cross, he freed
many Jews, but Bernadotte’s status of a hero among the Jewish people was short-
lived. The newly formed United Nations had appointed Bernadotte as the mediator
in the first Israeli-Arab conflict, with Israel fighting for independence. With his
first partition plan, Bernadotte angered many extremist forces within Israel. He
came to be seen as an enemy of Israel, and was assassinated in Jeruzalem at point
blank range by the Jewish group LEHI. This group included Yitzhak Shamir, who
would become Prime Minister of Israel in the 1980s. Count Bernadotte is now an
icon in Swedish and diplomatic history.
CAPACITY TO MAKE A CLAIM
Because Bernadotte was in the service of the United Nations, the new organization
sought to improve security for its agents like Bernadotte. One avenue is the ability
to hold someone or something responsible for injuries suffered by the organization
or its agents, and extract reparations. Bu whether the UN was able to do so, like
states, was unclear. The UN General Assembly (UNGA) asked the International
Court of Justice for an advisory opinion on the issue. Did the UN have the capacity
to make an international claim to demand reparations when a state is responsible
for injuries to one of its agens in the performance of its duties? The question was
asked in the abstract, but in essence, the UNGA asked whether the UN could make
an international claim against Israel as the responsible government for the death of
Count Bernadotte.
THE REQUIREMENTS OF INTERNATIONAL LIFE
In order to answer the question, the Court had to basically determine the status of
the UN in he international legal system in 1948? Is it on the same level as
sovereign states? Does the UN have the international legal personality? Only if it
does, can the UN make a claim. The court first determined that the subjects of law
’are not necessarily identical in nature or in the extent of their rights (…).’  That
was the first opening. Besides states, other entities can be subjects of international
law. The extent of their rights depends on the nature of those other entities, and
’their nature depends on the international community’. Legal pragmatism at its
finest. And it gets better:

”Throughout its history, the development of international law has been influenced
by the requirements of international life, and the progressive increase in the
collective activities of States has already given rise to instances of action upon the
international plane  by certain entities which are not States.”
EFFECTIVENESS
But that still didn’t answer the question. The next step was an examination of the
nature of the UN. First, the Court determined that the UN is a general organization
with broad tasks and powers. What it concluded on that basis is worth quoting in
full:

”In the opinion of the Court, the Organization was intended to exercise and enjoy,
and is in fact exercising and enjoying, functions and rights which can only be
explained on the basis of the possession of a large measure of international
personality and the capacity to operate upon an international plane. (…) It must
be acknowledged that its Members, by entrusting certain functions to it, with the
attendant duties and responsibilities, have clothed it with the competence required
to enable those functions to be effectively discharged.”
So, in order for the UN to be effective, the UN’s founders must have ’clothed it’
with legal personality, and so it such legal personality. You can question whether
the Court means to say that legal personality must be assumed in order to be
effective, or that it must be assumed because the founder’s must have found it
necessary to be effective. In any case, the Court was being pragmatic and idealistic
at the same time.This principle of effectiveness has been with the law of
international organizations ever since.

AFTERMATH
Count Bernadotte is not mentioned once in the Reparation for Injuries Opinion.
But ultimately, Israel agreed to pay the United Nation 19.500 pounds, and did so in
1950. The family of Count Bernadotte did not file a claim against Israel, the
assassins were never caught, and the Israeli-Arab conflict continues to this day.
And the United Nations and international organizations in general became a
permanent fixture in the international legal and political arenas.