1.2 Nature and Scope of International Institutions

Nature: international institutions are creatures of the states — their powers are conferred, not inherent (the organization may do only what its constitution allows: the principle of conferred/ speciality competence) — yet actors in their own right once created: they act through their organs, bind their officials, and bear international responsibility. The sources of the law governing them (the exam's map): (i) the constituent treaty (the organization's constitution); (ii) the treaties they conclude (headquarters agreements, relationship agreements); (iii) their internal law (rules of procedure, staff and financial regulations); (iv) resolutions and decisions (binding or recommendatory according to the constitution's own terms); (v) the general rules of international law applicable to them (the law of international responsibility's mirror — the law of IO responsibility codified by the ILC); (vi) custom among members as to their practice. Legal personality (the doctrine's fountain): the Reparations for Injuries Suffered in the Service of the United Nations advisory opinion (1949 — the Bernadotte case): the UN possesses objective international personality — the capacity to bear rights and duties on the international plane, derived from the Charter's purposes and functions, opposable even to non- members. The consequences: treaty-making capacity; privileges and immunities (the General Convention 1946; the 1947 Specialized Agencies Convention — the functional-necessity logic); responsibility for the organs' acts; claim-presentation (the Reparations holding itself — the UN could claim for its injured agent); and domestic legal personality (to hold property, sue and be sued in national courts). The personality is derived and functional — bounded by the constituent treaty: neither super-state nor mere committee. Scope: from the universal-general (the UN) to the technical-specialized (the postal, telecom, health and finance agencies) to the regional (the EU, AU, SAARC) — the modern lattice that governs trade, health, climate, finance and rights; the scope's growth line: from conference to institution; from the state's diplomatic servant to the system's governance organ.