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Liability of international organizations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2009

Henry G. Schermers
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Abstract

When in 1985 the International Tin Council was unable to meet its financial obligations, various legal questions arose. It appears that the question of liability of international organizations has, up till now, not been adequately addressed. The article written by Professor Henry G. Schemers is a first attempt in legal literature to examine the liability of international organizations from a theoretical point of view. The author concludes that the principle that everybody is liable for his debts does not apply to international governmental organizations. The liability of governments is, in the eyes of the author, not limited when they perform some of their tasks through an international organization, unless there is an express provision to this effect. However, in general international law is insufficiently developed with respect to the payment of debts of international organizations.

Type
Leading Articles
Information
Leiden Journal of International Law , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , May 1988 , pp. 3 - 14
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation of the Leiden Journal of International Law 1988

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References

1. Yearbook of the International Law Commission, 1986, II (2), pp. 8

2. Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Institute of State and Law, International Law, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1959 ed., p. 89, which reads: “No international organizations can be subjects of international law”. The 1964 edition reads: “There is no unanimous opinion on the question whether international organizations are subjects of international law”. For further literature see Schermers, H.G., International Institutional Law.(1980), p. 1393.Google Scholar

3. See e.g. the constitutions of the European Biology Labaratory, Art. 14; the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecast, Art. 21; the European Space Agency, Art. XXV (text in International Organization and Integration, vol.II.K.8.a, (1984).

4. International Organization and Integration, vol.I.A.6.4.a.

5. Id., vol. I.A.6.4.C.

6. Draft Articles on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and their Property, Art. 6. Yearbook of the ILC, 1986.

7. Szasz, P.C., The United Nations legislates to limit its Liability, 81 AJIL (1987), pp. 739–744.Google Scholar

8. See the Report of the ILC on the work of its thirty-eighth session (5 May-11 July 1986), UN Doc. A/41/10 or Yearbook of the ILC 1986.

9. Application No.9676/82, Sequaris v. Belgium, Report of the Commission of 13 July 1983

10. First Kampffmeyer Case, (Judgement of July 14,1967), 1967 ECR 245 at 266