The Institutional Veil in Public International Law: International Organisations and the Law of Treaties

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

This book deals with the nature of international organisations and the tension between their legal nature and the system of classic, state-based international law. This tension is important in theory and practice, particularly when organisations are brought under the rule of international law and have to be conceptualised as legal subjects, for example in the context of accountability. The position of organisations is complicated by what the author terms 'the institutional veil', comparable to the corporate veil found in corporate law. The book focuses on the law of treaties, as this pre-eminently 'horizontal' branch of international law brings out the problem particularly clearly. The first part of the book addresses the legal phenomenon of international organisations, their legal features as independent concepts, the history of international organisations and of legal thought in respect of them, and the development of contemporary law on international organisations. The second part deals with the practice of international organisations and treaty-making. It discusses treaty-making practice within organisations, judicial practice in interpretation of organisations' constitutive treaties, and the practice of treaty-making by organisations. The third and final part analyses the process by which international organisations have been brought under the rule of the written law of treaties, offering a practical application of the conceptual framework as previously set out. Part three is at the same time an analytic overview of the drafting history of the 1986 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties between States and International Organizations or between International Organizations. This is a profound and penetrating examination of the character of international organisations and their place in international law, and will be an important source for anyone interested in the future role of organisations in the international legal system.

Reviews

The arguments raised and the propositions made on the institutional veil of international organizations no doubt offer refreshingly new insights into an important branch of traditional public international law. Stephan Wittich Austrian Review of International and European Law Volume 13 ...includes hard-hitting and well-reasoned chapters on international organizations as a forum for treaty-making, their constitutive treaties, and their treaty-making powers...a necessary title for any library (or personal) collection which focuses or touches upon the increasingly overlapping State and organizational treaty regimes. American Society of International Law Newsletter Issue 38, May 08 Catherine Brolmann's book is a welcome addition to literature addressing the role of intergovernmental organisations...as autonomous actors within international law. Given the importance of autonomous organisations in the delivery of effective collective security and peacekeeping, this book can be seen as a valuable addition to the literature analysing and perhaps developing the conceptual framework surrounding conflict and security law...Brolmann has written a fine study, and her analytical history of accommodating IGOs within the law of treaties is sufficient contribution in and of itself. It also represents a welcome move to thinking about institutional capacities beyond the functionality which characterises much institutional law. In fact, by engaging with this area of law on its own (positivist) terms, the book is not only more accessible, but it is also a more devastating critique for this reason...a fine, inspiring book with broad and lasting significance. Richard Collins Journal of Conflict & Security Law Vol. 13 No 1, 2008 ...offers a much deeper insight and analysis of the essential issue of the legal personality of international organizations than what may be found in most handbooks in the field. It also provides welcome clarifications on some classical concepts, such as that of 'competences' of international organizations, which are not always dealt with in a satisfactory fashion in other writings... Pierre Klein Netherlands International Law Review Issue 3, 2008 With this book the author has produced a work which enriches the body of literature on international organizations with an original and creative treatment of much discussed topics. Kirsten Schmalenbach European Journal of International Law Vol 20, No 2, April 2009 Brolmann writes clearly and draws from a wide range of material on international organizations; the book is well-documented and is usable as a treatise on international organizations... Steve Charnovitz The American Journal of International Law Vol 103, No 3, July 2009

Author Bio

Catherine Brlmann is an Associate Professor in the Department of International Law at the University of Amsterdam.