In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Author: Kristen E. Boon

13 Jun

The International Law Commission (ILC) has adopted the Draft Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations (RIO). The final version of the articles is available on the ILC’s website. As the Chairman of the Drafting Committee noted, the adoption of these articles marks a historic occasion as the ILC has been working on the law of responsibility for over 60 years.The...

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09 Mar

The UN has just released its comments on the ILC’s set of 66 Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations (“RIO”) as document  A/CN.4/637/Add.1 (available on the ILC website). The commentary is interesting both for what it says and what it doesn’t say. It should be noted that the comments take a more conciliatory view of the ILC’s enterprise than a number...

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19 Nov

To continue with our earlier postings on issues of interest in the Draft Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations – a subject of current debate involves countermeasures. Countermeasures can be defined as actions (reprisals) taken to respond to a prior negative action that would violate international law but for the prior wrong. Countermeasures are to...

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11 Nov

The Draft Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations (“RIO”) provide that for an internationally wrongful act to occur, (i) the conduct must be attributable to the IO under international law, and (ii) constitute a breach of an international obligation of that IO. Greg Fox will be blogging on the important question of attribution later this week. ...

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09 Nov

The 6th Committee of the GA recently finished its first reading of the 66 draft Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations (“RIO”). The draft articles create rules on when international organizations can be held responsible for internationally wrongful acts under international law. In other words, when can international organizations ("IOs") sue or be sued?...

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04 Sep

Tom Farer's 'Latin Americanization' thesis deserves comment; i.e. that recent anti-terrorism / Guantanamo  measures by the Bush administration are comparable to tactics that certain authoritarian Latin American regimes undertook, in that (i) states of emergency were proclaimed in conjunction with incursions on human rights, and that (ii) neither judicial nor congressional oversight effectively limited the executive's power. The analogy between the current US administration's behavior towards terrorism...

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10 Sep

Thank you for the opportunity to guest blog on Opinio Juris these past two weeks. One final message for those who are following the issue of interrogation: Seton Hall School of Law is partnering with Second Life on September 17 to provide an afternoon Constitution Day program on “Interrogation and Intelligence Gathering.” Speakers will address FBI methods of...

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06 Sep

Seton Hall Law & The Whitehead School of Diplomacy in Newark, NJ are holding a major symposium on post-conflict reconstruction on November 2 entitled: When the Fighting Stops: Roles and Responsibilities in Post Conflict Reconstruction The event will compare and contrast American & multilateral approaches to post-conflict reconstruction. Speakers include: Clint Williamson, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, ...

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06 Sep

The creation of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) was one of the few tangible outcomes of the 2005 World Summit UN Reform process. The PBC was formed to "advise and propose integrated strategies for post-conflict recovery, focusing attention on reconstruction, institution-building and sustainable development, in countries emerging from conflict." To date, the Peacebuilding Commission has taken on two cases:...

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04 Sep

Microcredit - providing small loans to individuals who would not normally qualify - is becoming tool of some consequence in economic reconstruction and disaster relief programs. The UN declared 2005 the year of micro-credit, and in 2006 Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen micro-credit Bank he created won the Nobel Peace Prize. Recent reports such as this...

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31 Aug

The Security Council held an open debate on Conflict Prevention in Africa this week (following up on the implementation of Resolution 1625 (2005)) on the same subject. The debate was notable in substance because of its emphasis on the Council’s role in conflict prevention. The Security Council is the UN’s primary organ with jurisdiction over threats to international...

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29 Aug

Rodrigo de Rato - Managing Director of the IMF announced he would resign earlier this summer. How should his successor be chosen? By convention, merit, or a mix of both? The established convention is that the Managing Director of the IMF is European, and the First Deputy Managing Director is American. (By comparison, the head of the...

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