The Institutional Aegis: International Organizations as Shields Against Member State Responsibility

Abstract

The development and proliferation of international organizations has endowed them with a legal personality separate from their member states, opening the possibility of international organizations as independent actors of internationally wrongful acts. While the ILC’s Draft Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations has attempted to codify the law on the matter, the obscurity of law persists with regards to the law of responsibility of those international organizations. Behind this obscurity, there is a concern that the powers of an international organizations may be misused to shield member states against responsibility. The separate legal personality of international organizations has been invoked in past cases to shield member states from alleged misconduct of their troops, military intervention and breaches of regional treaty law. This article will attempt to lay out the manners by which the law may be utilized to raise this shield and veil the responsibility of member states through an international organization. It will also briefly discuss the limited remedies available to counter this veil.