Because of their increasing prevalence and diversity, International Organizations (IOs) are one of the most striking legal phenomena in contemporary international law. Evolutions in the Law of International Organizations, is a collection of essays discussing the ever-changing nature of IOs. It covers all the many considerable practical evolutions in the law of, offers a discussion of theoretical issues and proposes solutions to many crucial problems related to these institutional developments. The book explores controversial institutional issues arising from recent developments in the complex international practice of IOs and includes contributions about the definition of IOs, the role of "soft" IOs and regional IOs, the reformation of international financial institutions, and the liability of IOs for their actions, among others.

In this book, author Otto Spijkers describes how moral values determined the founding of the United Nations Organization in 1945, and the evolution of its purposes, principles, and policies since then. A detailed examination of the proceedings of the UN Conference on International Organization in San Francisco demonstrates that the drafting of the UN Charter was significantly influenced by global moral values, i.e. globally-shared beliefs distinguishing right from wrong, good from bad, and the current from a preferable state-of-the-world. A common desire - to eradicate war, poverty, inhuman treatment, and to halt the exploitation of peoples - has led to an affirmation of the values of peace and security, social progress and development, human dignity, and the self-determination of all peoples. All these values ended up in the UN Charter. The book further analyzes how the UN, and especially its General Assembly, has continued to influence the maturing of global morality through contributions to the values debate, and to the translation of these values into the language of international law, including the law on the use of force, sustainable development, human rights, and the right to self-determination. (Series: School of Human Rights Research - Vol. 47)

This unique book brings together leading experts from diverse areas of public international law to offer a comprehensive overview of the approaches to evolutionary interpretation in different international legal regimes. It begins by asking what interpretation is, offering the views of expert authors on the question, its components and definitions. It then comments on situations that have called for evolutionary interpretation in different international legal regimes, including general international law, environmental law, human rights law, EU law, investment law, international trade law, and how domestic courts have, on occasions, interpreted treaties and other international legal instruments in an evolutionary manner. This timely, authoritative compendium offers an in-depth understanding of the processes at work in evolutionary interpretation as well as a prime selection of the current trends and future challenges.

Provides a framework for understanding how organizations are set up and the logic behind international organizations law.

The first casebook of its kind, Judicial Decisions on the Law of International Organizations contains relevant excerpts of leading court opinions and decisions on the law of international organizations (international institutional law) and critical commentaries written by leading experts in the field.

This timely book examines the responsibility of international organizations for complicity in human rights and humanitarian law violations. It comprehensively addresses a lacuna in current scholarship through an analysis of the mandates and modus operandi of UN peace operations, offering workable normative solutions and striking a balance between the UN’s duty not to contribute to international law violations and its need to discharge mandated tasks in a highly volatile environment.

If a treaty from the 1850s regulating 'commerce' or forbidding 'degrading treatment of persons' is to be interpreted 150 years later, does 'commerce' or 'degrading treatment of persons' have the same meaning at the time of interpretation as they had when the treaty was agreed? The evolutionary interpretation of treaties has proven one of the most controversial topics in the practice of international law. Indeed, it has been seen as going against the very grain of the law of treaties, and has been argued to be contrary to the intention of the parties, breaching the principle of consent. This book asks what the place of evolutionary interpretation is within the understanding of treaties, at a time when many important international legal instruments are over 50 years old. It sets out to place the evolutionary interpretation of treaties on a firm footing within the general rule of interpretation, as codified in Article 31 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. The book demonstrates that the evolutionary interpretation of treaties - in common with all other types of interpretation such as good faith, the text of the treaty, context, object and purpose - is in fact a based upon an objective understanding of the intention of the parties. In order to marry intention and evolution in this way, the book argues that, on the one hand, evolutionary interpretation is the product of the correct application of Article 31 and, on the other, that Article 31 is geared towards the establishment of the intention of the parties. The evolutionary interpretation of treaties is therefore shown to represent an intended evolution.