Ljubo Runjić

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS AND THE INTERNATIONAL LEGAL RESPONSIBILITY

The matter of the international legal responsibility of international organizations today is only partially regulated by international law. For this very reason, the International Law Commission (ILC) adopted in 2011 the final Draft articles on responsibility of international organizations (DARIO). Unfortunately, the lack of significant international practice in respect of the international legal responsibility of international organizations has resulted that the majority solutions in the DARIO are copied from the Draft articles on responsibility of states for internationally wrongful acts (DARS) which was adopted by the ILC in 2001. Moreover, the absence of significant international practice also influenced the weaker development of the international customary rules regarding international legal responsibility of international organizations, so because of that there is the need for the adoption of the DARIO in the form of a treaty.

Although the DARIO for the most part follows the DARS, it also regulates one of the most complex, but also the most controversial issues in the field of the international legal responsibility which was not covered by the DARS – question of state liability for the acts of international organizations. In fact, a separate international legal personality of international organizations from the personality of the member states has resulted with the separate international legal responsibility of international organizations from the responsibility of member states. Accordingly, the commission of an international wrongful act by an international organization entails the international legal responsibility of an international organization and not of its member states. International legal personality of international organizations thus represents a shield that protects the member states from the eventual international legal responsibility for the acts of international organizations. Though, some writers with the aim of protecting the rights and interests of third parties represent the view that member states, exclusively due to their membership, are concurrently or secondarily liable for internationally wrongful acts of international organizations. However, acceptance of the concurrent and secondary responsibility of the member states, based exclusively on their membership, would lead to interfering of member states in the work of international organizations, and that would brought into question the autonomy and separate international legal personality of international organizations. Solutions provided by the DARIO represent therefore a compromise between the requirement to maintain separate international legal personality and autonomy of international organizations on the one side, and the requirements for the protection of the rights of third parties on the other side.

Keywords: international organizations, international legal responsibility of member states, International Law Commission, Draft articles on the responsibility of international organizations.