International Legal Responsibility of International Organizations in the ILC Draft Articles and Beyond

Abstract

I. Terminology 15 theories, especially constructivist and rationalist theories and approaches, will be able to provide a complete explanation of IOs and their roles at the international sphere.As a last remark in the introduction, it should be mentioned that the reason behind choosing a vast pallete of different problems and questions regarding the international responsibility of IOs is to give an outline of a cluster of interrelated challenges with all its aspects possibly besides each other that give rise to a unique problematic. Admittedly, each of these problems has been addressed separately but a complete picture of the whole scenario is still hard to find and is lacking in the existing literature I. TerminologyThe scope of the present research work will be limited to the examination of the question of, and situations where intergovernmental organizations could be encumbered with responsibility, accountability and liability. Unless otherwise specified, whenever in this work the term "international organization (IO)" is used, the aim is to refer to intergovernmental organizations, known also as public international organizations. The two essential and common elements, to almost all the definitions presented for this kind of IOs, are first, the establishment by states by means of a treaty, or other instrument under international law, and the second, independence in legal personality, and actions, from their members. Thus, it is clear that the question of the possibility/or not of international responsibility and liability of non-governmental organizations is beyond the scope of this thesis.Furthermore, the word "responsibility" which refers to a legal relation between two or more subjects of international law, is used in its strict sense to avoid any confusion of this concept with the other close concepts of accountability and liability. This is exactly the approach that the ILC has minutiously followed in drafting the two sets of articles on responsibility:"Being obliged to accept the possible risks arising from the exercise of an activity which is itself lawful, or being obliged to face the consequences -which are not necessarily limited to compensation -of the breach of a legal obligation, are two different matters. It is only because of the relative poverty of legal language that the same term is habitually used to designate both." 76 Everywhere in the text of the thesis the word responsibility is used, thereby international legal responsibility is meant, unless otherwise specified.