The ever-growing interaction between member States and international organisations results, all too often, in situations of non-conformity with international law (eg peacekeeping operations, international economic adjustment programmes, counter-terrorism sanctions). Seven years after the finalisation of the International Law Commission’s Articles on the Responsibility of International Organisations (ARIO), international law on the allocation of international responsibility between these actors still remains unsettled. The confusion around the nature and normative calibre of the relevant rules, the paucity of relevant international practice supporting them and the lack of a clear and principled framework for their elaboration impairs their application and restricts their ability to act as effective regulatory formulas.This study aims to offer doctrinal clarity in this area of law and purports to serve as a point of reference for all those with a vested interest in the topic. For the first time since the publication of the ARIO, all international responsibility issues dealing with interactions between member States and international organisations are put together in one book under a common approach. Structured around a systematisation of the interactions between these actors, the study provides an analytical framework for the regulation of indirect responsibility scenarios. Based on the ideas of the intellectual fathers of international law, such as Scelle’s ‘dédoublement fonctionnel’ theory and Ago’s ‘derivative responsibility’ model, the book employs old ideas to add original argumentation to a topic that has been dealt with extensively by recent commentators.
Nikolaos Voulgaris is a lecturer at the European Law and Governance School and Head of the Treaty Division of the European Public Law Organization. He is also a teaching assistant of the LLM in public international law at the University of Athens and a Fellow at the Athens Public International Law Centre.
1. Introduction I. Introduction II. Interaction Between International Organisation and Member States III. A Description of the Problem IV. Addressing the Problem 2. The Function and Nature of International Responsibility I. Introduction II. Function of International Responsibility: ‘No Responsibility, No Law’ III. International Responsibility and the Subjects of International Law IV. Nature of International Responsibility V. Conclusion PART IMEMBER STATE-INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION INTERACTION ON THE BASIS OF THE PARTICULAR MEMBERSTATE-INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION RELATIONSHIP3. Reassessing the Particular Member State-International Organisation Relationship I. Introduction II. Relationship from an Inside-out Perspective: States in an Organisational Setting III. Relationship from an Outside-in Perspective: Ramifications of the International Organisation’s Legal Personality IV. Exceptions to the ‘Exclusive International Organisation Responsibility’ Rule V. Conclusion PART IIMEMBER STATE-INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION INTERACTION AS INDEPENDENT SUBJECTSOF INTERNATIONAL LAW4. The Applicable Responsibility Models I. Introduction II. Direct Responsibility: Responsibility in Connection with Own Conduct III. Indirect Responsibility: Responsibility in Connection with the Conduct of Another IV. Conclusion 5. Circumvention of Obligations through Member States I. Introduction II. ARIO, Article 17(1) and the Derivative Responsibility Model III. ARIO, Article 17(2) and the Complicity Model IV. Conclusion 6. Circumvention of Obligations through the International Organisation I. Introduction II. A Legal Analysis of ARIO, Article 61 III. ECtHR Case Law and Article 61: A Relationship Lost in Causation IV. Conclusion PART IIIINTERACTIONS INTERTWINED7. Responsibility at the Decision-making Level I. Introduction II. Control from Within/Derivative Responsibility III. ARIO, Article 58(2): Aid or Assistance IV. Conclusion 8. Concluding Remarks