The Law of Responsability of Internacional Organizations: General Rules, Special Regimes or Alternative Mechanisms of Accountability?

• Author: Paolo Palchetti
• Pages: 72-88

72

X ANUÁRIO BRASILEIRO DE DIREITO INTERNACIONAL

THE LAW OF RESPONSIBILITY OF INTERNATIONAL

ORGANIZATIONS: GENERAL RULES, SPECIAL REGIMES OR

ALTERNATIVE MECHANISMS OF ACCOUNTABILITY?

Paolo Palchetti1

ABSTRACT

The present article aims to analyze two different, albeit related, criticisms

addressed to the general approach followed by the International Law Commission in

its work of codification of the rules on the responsibility of international

organizations. The first relies on the consideration of the great diversity among

international organizations and of the ensuing difficulty of identifying a set of rules

of responsibility which apply to every organization. The other criticism raises the

question of whether a set of general rules of responsibility may be regarded as an

adequate way of making international organizations more accountable. This article

will show that these criticisms appear excessive. It is submitted that, to the extent that

the Articles adopted on 2011 provide a first attempt to delineate a comprehensive

legal framework for regulating the question of the responsibility of international

organizations, they fill an important gap and may contribute to generate a greater

awareness of the limitations incumbent on international organizations and of the

consequences stemming from an overstepping of such limitations.

Keywords: International organizations. Responsibility. Accountability. International

Law Commission.

RESUMO

O presente artigo tem por objetivo analisar duas diferentes, ainda que

relacionadas, críticas dirigidas à abordagem geral seguida pela Comissão de Direito

Internacional no seu trabalho de codificação das regras relativas à responsabilidade

das organizações internacionais. A primeira crítica baseia-se na consideração da

grande diversidade entre as organizações internacionais e da dificuldade que se

seguiu de identificação de um conjunto de regras de responsabilidade que se aplicam

a todas as organizações. A outra crítica levanta a questão de saber se um conjunto de

regras gerais da responsabilidade pode ser considerado como uma forma adequada de

tornar as organizações internacionais mais responsáveis.

Este artigo irá mostrar que estas críticas parecem excessivas. Alega-se que, na

medida em que as disposições adotadas em 2011 fornecem uma primeira tentativa de

delinear um quadro jurídico abrangente para regular a questão da responsabilidade

1PhD, University of Milan. Professor of International Law, University of Macerata.

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The Law of Responsibility of International Organizations: General Rules, Special Regimes or Alternative

Mechanisms of Accountability?

das organizações internacionais, eles preenchem uma lacuna importante e podem

contribuir para gerar uma maior consciência das limitações que incumbem às

organizações internacionais e das consequências decorrentes de uma ultrapassagem

de tais limitações.

Palavras-Chave: Organizações Internacionais. Responsabilidade. Comissão De

Direito Internacional

INTRODUCTION

On 9 December 2011 the United Nations General Assembly adopted

Resolution 66/100, by which it took note of the articles on the responsibility of

international organizations, presented by the International Law Commission, and

commended «them to the attention of Governments and international organizations

without prejudice to the question of their future adoption or other appropriate

action».2The 67 Articles on the responsibility of international organizations, to

which Resolution 66/100 refers, were adopted on second reading by the International

Law Commission at its sixty-three session in 2011.3If one considers that the first

report of the Commission’s special rapporteur, Giorgio Gaja, was submitted in 2003,4

it can be said that the period of time spent by Commission on this work was a

relatively short one. This can be also explained by the fact that, in addressing the

issue of responsibility of international organizations, the Commission benefited from

the previous codification of the rules on state responsibility. The general approach of

the 2011 Articles, including the distinction between primary and secondary rules, as

well as the content of several provisions are modeled on the Articles on state

responsibility adopted in 2001.5

Much has already been written about the 2011 Articles on the responsibility

of international organizations.6Some of the legal issues addressed in the Articles

2UN Doc. A/RES/66/100, paragraph 3.

3Report of the International Law Commiss ion on the Work of its Sixty-third Session, UN doc. A/66/10, p.

54.

4GAJA, G., First report on the responsibility of international organizations, UN doc. A/CN.4/532.

5However, the Commission took care to specify that the Articles are not based on any presumption that

the Articles on state responsibility are also applicable to international organizations: «While the present

draft articles are in many respects similar to the articles on State responsibility, they represent an

autonomous text. Each issue has been considered from the specific perspective of the responsibility of

international organizations. Some provisions address question s that are peculiar to internationa l

organizations. When in the st udy of the responsibility of in ternational organizations t he conclusion is

reached that an identi cal or similar solution to the one expressed in th e articles on State resp onsibility

should apply with respect to international organizations, this is based on appropriate reasons and not on a

general presumption that the same principles apply». Report of the International Law Commission on the

Work of its Sixty-third Session, cit., p. 69. On this issue, see AHLBORN, C., The Use of Analogies in

Drafting the Articles on the Res ponsibility of Internationa l Organizations. An Appra isal of the ‘Copy-

Paste’ Approach, International Organizations Law Review, vol. 9, 2012, p. 53 ff.

6Among the many contributions, see RAGAZZI, M. (ed.), Responsibility of international

organizations: essays in memory of Sir Ian Brownlie, Martinus Nijhoff, Leiden/ Boston, 2013; the