{"id":1761,"date":"2007-06-01T09:02:16","date_gmt":"2007-06-01T13:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.journals.law.harvard.edu\/ilj\/site\/?p=1761"},"modified":"2010-11-19T08:48:14","modified_gmt":"2010-11-19T12:48:14","slug":"issue_48-2_stumer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/ilj\/2007\/06\/issue_48-2_stumer\/","title":{"rendered":"Liability of Member States for Acts of International Organizations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Introduction<\/span><\/strong>*<\/p>\n<p>Over  the past sixty years, there has been an exponential growth in the  number, scope, and influence of international organizations. This growth  has greatly expanded the capacity of international organizations to  commit acts that detrimentally affect the interests of States or  individuals. As a result, it has become necessary to decide who is  responsible, and liable to provide compensation, when an organization  breaches international law. Reflecting this concern, the International  Law Commission (\u201cILC\u201d), in response to a request by the United Nations  General Assembly, has begun drafting articles to codify the rules on the  responsibility of international organizations. One of the most  difficult issues under consideration by the ILC in this context is  whether Member States bear secondary or concurrent liability to third  parties for the acts of an international organization. The terms  secondary liability and concurrent liability are used throughout this  Note to refer to the attribution of responsibility to a State merely by  virtue of its member-ship in an international organization. These forms  of liability stand in contrast to the liability a State may incur for  its own acts that breach international law.<\/p>\n<p>In July 2006, the  Drafting Committee of the ILC Working Group on Responsibility of  International Organizations adopted draft articles dealing with the  liability of Member States. These draft articles outline various  situations in which the conduct of a Member State can cause it to become  liable for the act of an international organization. However, the draft  articles do not support the imposition of liability on Member States by  virtue of membership alone. While the Working Group considered a wide  range of matters in reaching this conclusion, some emphasis was placed  on the policy consideration that secondary or concurrent liability would  interfere with the autonomy of international organizations by  encouraging interference from the Member States.<\/p>\n<p>This policy  consideration has been referred to so frequently in the literature on  secondary and concurrent liability that it has obtained almost axiomatic  status. It is often placed alongside a related concern that secondary  or concurrent liability would undermine the separate personality of  international organizations. The purpose of this Note is to examine  whether these policy considerations provide a sound basis for denying  secondary or concurrent liability. Part I of this Note clarifies the  meaning of secondary and concurrent liability and distinguishes those  concepts from other forms of liability a State may incur for the acts of  an international organization. Part II outlines the views of the  commentators who have contended that secondary or concurrent liability  would be detrimental to the separate personality and independence of  international organizations. Part III demonstrates that the effect of  secondary or concurrent liability of Member States on the personality or  independence of international organizations has been exaggerated. It  does not follow from this conclusion that a general principle of Member  State liability must be recognized under international law. However,  unsubstantiated claims about a detrimental impact on the personality or  independence of international organizations should not be permitted to  influence the ILC deliberations on the legal question of secondary or  concurrent liability. . . .<\/p>\n<p><em>* This excerpt does  not include citations. To read the entire article, including supporting  notes, please download the PDF above.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the past sixty years, there has been an exponential growth in the number, scope, and influence of international organizations. This growth has greatly expanded the capacity of international organizations to commit acts that detrimentally affect the interests of States or individuals. As a result, it has become necessary to decide who is responsible, and liable to provide compensation, when an organization breaches international law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-print-archives"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZu3S-sp","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/ilj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/ilj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/ilj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/ilj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/ilj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/ilj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1761\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/ilj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/ilj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/ilj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}