The Law of International

and Regional Organizations

An Introduction
 Historical Background
 The development of international
organizations response to the evident need
arising from international intercourse
 The growth of international intercourse a
constant feature of maturing societies, facilitated
by advances in the mechanics of transport and
communications combined with the desire for
trade and commerce called for international
regulation by institutional means
 The consul and the ambassadors
 The Consul: to watch over the interests of the citizens
engaged in commerce in a foreign port known to the
Greeks and the Romans survive until now not
concerned with representing his State

 The ambassador: representing his State, dispatched for

the purpose of a specific negotiation.  Developed into
the institution of a permanent diplomatic ambassador in
the capital of the receiving State  the practice of
exchanging ambassadors with staff and embassy
premises
 These all developed in the context of bilateral
relationship  inadequate with more international
relations grew
 International Conference
 Three or more States gathered to have a series
of negotiations or discuss a draft treaty  a
means of representing the interests of all the
States concerned
 The means: the international conference: a
gathering of representatives from several States
 Examples: The Peace of Westphalia (1648) and
other post-war conference to settle problem of a
more general nature involving more that two
States  to be used until today to solve
problems on a multilateral basis
 Concert System
 The Congress of Vienna 1815  constituted a
significant development: congresses held at
regular intervals (the Holy Alliance). Four
congresses held between 1818-1822. 
Significant recognition that the “pace” of
international relations demanded some
institution for regular multilateral negotiations.
 “Concert of Europe” remained a quasi-
institutionalized system: ad hoc system. The
London Conferences of 1912-1913 being the
last of the Concert of Europe
 Disadvantages
 First,a new conference had to be
convened for each new problem 
complicated and delayed cooperation in
dealing with the problem
 Second, delegations attended only to
deliver statements of State policy, and the
conference apply a rigidity
 Third, held by invitation of the sponsoring
State  no principle of membership which
conferred an automatic right to
representation or participation
 Fourth, adhered to the strict rule of State
equality  all States had an equal vote
and all decisions required unanimity. This
was the biggest power restriction of an ad
hoc conference
 The system of ad hoc conference was even
more inadequate for the regulation of the
relations between groups representing private
concerns
 Representatives of these States did not have
expertise to address technical issues in the
areas of international trade, commerce,
transport and communication
 Therefore, there established an impressive
development of associations or unions between
groups other than governments  private
international unions
 Private International Unions
 Non governmental bodies, whether private
individuals or corporate associations, that
their interests had international character
needing a permanent international
association
 Between 1840 and the beginning of the
First World War, around 400 permanent
association or unions existed.
 The characteristics:
 the possession of a permanent organ
 the association’s object must be of interest to all
or some nations and not one of profit
 that membership should be open to all
individuals or groups from different countries
 their more modern manifestation today are in the
form of NGOs
 need for a permanent, not ad hoc, association
and for periodic, regular meetings
 set up a small, permanent Secretariat
 Public International Unions
 Cooperation between governments
 Originated from international organizations in the administrative
sphere
 Permanent associations of governments or administrations, based
upon a treaty of a multilateral rather than a bilateral type with some
definite criterion of purpose
 In 1815, Congress of Vienna established the Rhine Commission
with considerable powers, including standard-setting and a judicial
power as a court of appeal from the local courts in each riparian
State established for the purpose of implementing the Rhine
Convention and its Reglements.
 The European Commission on the Danube established in 1856 had
similar administrative and legislative functions. Its budget came from
toll levied on river traffic.
 International Office of Public Health was established in 1907
 Characteristics:
 Trend towards permanence of association
 Permanent deliberative or legislative organs
working with administrative organs
 Periodic conference working with a permanent
bureau
 Departures from the unanimity rule
 Detailed implementation Reglement
 Techniques of weighted voting and of
proportionate budgetary contributions
 Still persisted: coordination of activities
 League of Nations
 Dedicated to the maintenance of peace after the
First World War
 A proposal introduced at the Peace Conference
of Paris in 1919
 The League’s objective was ‘to promote
international cooperation and to achieve
international peace and security’
 The system of collective security, based on
disarmament (art 8), pacific settlement of dispute
and the outlawing of war ( art 11-15), a collective
guarantee of the independence of its member
(art 10), and sanctions (art 16 and 17)
 The League’s effort to maintain
international peace and security was not
so successful.
 The failure of the League was due, not to
the inadequacies of the Covenant, but to
the apathy and reluctance of the member
States to discharge their obligations.
 The League had three principal organs:
 1. The Council: the organ of limited
membership, comprising originally
‘representatives of the Principal Allied and
Associated Powers together with
representatives of four other members…
selected by the Assembly from time to
time…’
 2. The Assembly: was the plenary organ, meeting
annually, working through six committees, and acted as
a deliberative organ. It had only the power to make
‘resolutions’ or ‘recommendations’ and could not bind
member States
 3. The Secretariat was by far the most ambitious
international civil service, or ‘bureau’, ever established in
international organization.
 The Permanent Court of International Justice, although
envisaged in the Covenant, was a separate institution
and not an organ of the League
 The League experienced considerable
constitutional development. The significant one
was the gradual extension of the Assembly’s role
at the expense of the Council. The Assembly’s
technique of securing agreement via inquiry and
general debate proved more effective than the
narrower diplomatic negotiation favored within
the Council. The also gradually took control over
the budget the Council.
 From the constitutional standpoint, the League had
several defects.

 The inclusion of the Covenant within the four Peace

Treaties led to certain identification of the League with
the victor States
 The unanimity rule, inherited from the traditional
diplomatic conference proved a severe hindrance and
the Assembly’s move toward simple majority was a clear
recognition of this
 Concurrent jurisdiction in the most important matter of
maintaining peace and the lack of any clear separation
of powers in this matter might give rise to difficulty where
the Council and the Assembly differed in their
approaches to the solution of a given problem affecting
international peace
 The Council’s functions were too wide, to include not
merely its political functions and also certain
administrative functions and supervision of the economic
and social activities of the League.
 Amendment of the Covenant was by a process both
vague and difficult, requiring ratification by a majority of
the Assembly and all members of the Council.
 Allowed the withdrawal from membership is questionable
in an organization aiming at universality
 A ‘decentralized’ system of sanctions was ineffective.
There had to be some delegation of authority to an
executive organ and an acceptance of the principle that
its decisions would bind all members
 Other weaknesses of the League: it never acquired a
universal character  the non-participation of the United
States of America, it remained predominantly a
European organization with a maximum 59 membership.
It failed to prevent the outbreak of the Second World
War.
 The failure was not necessarily due to its constitutional
defects; it failed because of lack of political will, its
members not being prepared to fulfill their obligations
and ensure its success
 The formal demise of the Leagues came on Aril 18,
1946.
 Definitional Aspects
 To qualify as an international organization it
must have the following characteristics:
 Its membership must be composed of states
and/or international organizations
 It must be established by Treaty
 It must have an autonomous will distinct from
that of its members and be vested with legal
personality, and
 It must be capable of adopting norms addressed
to its members
 Classification of Organizations
 Based on function:
 Political organization: the preservation of international peace and
security
 Administrative organization: more specific technical aims in the
economic and social fields
 Judicial and other settlement of disputes

Based on membership:
 Global membership
 Regional membership

Based on powers:
 Supra national powers
 Non-supra national powers