Berkes, Collins, & Deplano: Reassessing the Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations: From Theory to Practice

Antal Berkes (Univ. of Liverpool - Law), Richard Collins (Queen's Univ. Belfast - Law) & Rossana Deplano (Univ. of Leicester - Law) have published Reassessing the Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations: From Theory to Practice (Edward Elgar Publishing 2024). Here's the abstract:

This book critically examines the reception and application of the 2011 Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations (ARIO), assessing their effectiveness and limitations. Adopting a panoptic approach, it explores the theory underlying the concept of responsibility for internationally wrongful acts in ARIO through both doctrinal analysis and practical case studies.

The editors have brought together a diverse group of legal experts to analyse various fields in the law of responsibility for international organizations (IOs), including questions of attribution, shared responsibility, the implementation of responsibility and the progressive development of ARIO rules. The book argues that, despite its rare application, the ARIO are a useful resource for ascertaining the responsibility of IOs in the form of judicial, non-judicial, internal or external control mechanisms. Ultimately, the book demonstrates that the ARIO constitute an authoritative legal source, capable of guiding IOs in reforming their internal law.

Orakhelashvili: Causation in International Law

Alexander Orakhelashvili (Univ. of Birmingham - Law) has published Causation in International Law (Edward Elgar Publishing 2022). Here's the abstract:

In this cutting-edge book, Alexander Orakhelashvili addresses the doctrine of causation, examining its suitability to influence, or contribute to, the process of responsibility of State and non-State actors in international law. In doing so, the book considers the record so far and places the international legal system’s practical experience within its normative context.

Split into four chapters, the book begins by examining the workings of causation across various national legal systems, including the common law and the civil law systems. The central second chapter considers the doctrine of causation within the structure of the law of State responsibility for internationally wrongful acts, focusing mainly on the ways in which causation is both adopted and bounded within the international legal system. The next chapter deals with the practice of international courts and tribunals relating to causation, including the International Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights, and the final chapter offers some critique of secondary literature on causation and related issues arising in national and international law.

Besson: Theories of International Responsibility Law

Samantha Besson (Collège de France) has published Theories of International Responsibility Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2022). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

There is no issue more central to a legal order than responsibility, and yet the dearth of contemporary theorizing on international responsibility law is worrying for the state of international law. The volume brings philosophers of the law of responsibility into dialogue with international responsibility law specialists. Its tripartite structure corresponds to the three main theoretical challenges in the contemporary practice of international responsibility law: the public and private nature of the international responsibility of public institutions; its collective and individual dimensions; and the place of fault therein. In each part, two international lawyers and two philosophers of responsibility law address the most pressing questions in the theory of international responsibility law. The volume closes with a comparative 'world tour' of the responsibility of public institutions in four different legal cultures and regions, identifying stepping-stones and stumbling blocks on the path towards a common law of international responsibility.

Nedeski: Shared Obligations in International Law

Nataša Nedeski (Univ. of Amsterdam - Law) has published Shared Obligations in International Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2022). Here's the abstract:

There are various situations in which multiple states or international organizations are bound to an international obligation in the context of cooperative activities and the pursuit of common goals. This practical phenomenon of sharing international obligations raises questions regarding the performance of obligations (who is bound to do what) and international responsibility in case of a breach (who can be held responsible for what). This book puts forward a concept of shared obligations that captures this practical phenomenon and enables scholars and practitioners to tackle these questions. In doing so, it engages in positive law-based categorization and systematization, building on existing categorizations of obligations and putting forward new typologies of shared obligations. Ultimately, it is contended that the sharing of obligations has relevant legal implications: it can influence the content and performance of obligations as well as the responsibility relations that arise in case of a breach.

Leinarte: Functional Responsibility of International Organisations: The European Union and International Economic Law

Emilija Leinarte (Univ. of Cambridge) has published Functional Responsibility of International Organisations: The European Union and International Economic Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2021). Here's the abstract:

This book provides a novel approach to the allocation of international responsibility in a multilayered structure like the European Union. Introducing a new concept of functional international responsibility, this study finds that in international economic law the focus of international dispute settlement bodies is not on the responsible party, but on a party best placed to bear responsibility. The book offers a comprehensive analysis of international rules of responsibility and international dispute settlement practice, primarily that of the World Trade Organization and investment arbitration. The study offers a practically applicable approach to questions of international responsibility which will assist international adjudicators, EU and Member States' officials and third country government agents who negotiate economic agreements and are involved in international economic disputes. The book is also relevant to those interested in the governance and accountability questions under the new EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement.

Conference: Theories of International Responsibility Law/Théories du droit de la responsabilité internationale

On June 25, 2021, the Collège de France will host an online conference on "Theories of International Responsibility Law/Théories du droit de la responsabilité internationale." The conference will be bilingual English-French, without simultaneous translation. Program and registration are here.

Call for Submissions: The Responsibility of International Organizations – Past, Present and Future

Rossana Deplano (Univ. of Leicester - Law) and Antal Berkes (Brunel Univ. - Law) have issued a call for abstracts for papers to be published in an edited collection on "The Responsibility of International Organizations – Past, Present and Future." The call is here. The deadline April 30, 2021.

Hansen-Magnusson & Vetterlein: The Rise of Responsibility in World Politics

Hannes Hansen-Magnusson (Cardiff Univ. - International Relations) & Antje Vetterlein (Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster - Institute for Political Science) have published The Rise of Responsibility in World Politics (Cambridge Univ. Press 2020). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

The concept of responsibility has emerged as central to the study of international politics. This book explores the integral role of responsibility within the context of global crises such as the responsibility to address climate change, manage financial crises, and intervene with political conflicts. Vetterlein and Hansen-Magnusson address responsibility as a conceptual tool in its own right, existing at the intersection of accountability and legitimacy and spanning across governance sectors of the environment, business, and security. This practice-based approach to the study of responsibility maps similarities and difference across policy fields and reveals the diverse moral actors responsible for negotiating responsibility. The emergence of responsibility further implicates underlying moral values and policy-making within the context of global politics. The Rise of Responsibility in World Politics addresses not only individual agency, but also how questions of community play a role in broader negotiations around the meaning of responsibility.

Pacholska: Complicity and the Law of International Organizations: Responsibility for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Violations in UN Peace Operations

Magdalena Pacholska (Legal Adviser, Polish Armed Forces) has published Complicity and the Law of International Organizations: Responsibility for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Violations in UN Peace Operations (Edward Elgar Publishing 2020). Here's the abstract:

This timely book examines the responsibility of international organizations for complicity in human rights and humanitarian law violations. It comprehensively addresses a lacuna in current scholarship through an analysis of the mandates and modus operandi of UN peace operations, offering workable normative solutions and striking a balance between the UN’s duty not to contribute to international law violations and its need to discharge mandated tasks in a highly volatile environment.

Building on existing scholarship on State responsibility for aid or assistance, this incisive book is the first to focus on how the complicity of international organizations in human rights and humanitarian law violations can be established. Through a re-examination of classic legal notions such as due diligence and effective control, and their application to the problem of UN responsibility for complicity, Dr Magdalena Pacholska provides a pertinent analysis of the complex issues surrounding the UN’s legal exposure for its activities in the field of peace and security.

Johansen: Dual Attribution of Conduct to both an International Organisation and a Member State

Stian Øby Johansen (Univ. of Oslo - Law) has published Dual Attribution of Conduct to both an International Organisation and a Member State (Oslo Law Review, Vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 178–197, 2019). Here's the abstract:

Responsibility, and in particular attribution of conduct, is one of the most intensely debated issues of public international law in the last couple of decades. In this article I seek to determine whether, how, and when acts or omissions may be attributed both to an international organisation and a member State (dual attribution). My aim is to clarify what dual attribution is, and what it is not. This is done in two steps. First, I (a) define the concept of dual attribution, (b) demonstrate that dual attribution is possible under the current law of international responsibility, and (c) establish a typology of dual attribution. Second, dual attribution is distinguished from three forms of shared responsibility. These are situations of two acts or omissions leading to one injury, derived responsibility, and the notion of piercing the corporate veil of international organisation. I end the article by criticising the disproportionate attention given to dual attribution in legal scholarship, given its limited practical utility.

Voulgaris: Allocating International Responsibility Between Member States and International Organisations

Nikolaos Voulgaris (European Law and Governance School; European Public Law Organization) has published Allocating International Responsibility Between Member States and International Organisations (Hart Publishing 2019). Here's the abstract:

The ever-growing interaction between member States and international organisations results, all too often, in situations of non-conformity with international law (eg peacekeeping operations, international economic adjustment programmes, counter-terrorism sanctions). Seven years after the finalisation of the International Law Commission's Articles on the Responsibility of International Organisations (ARIO), international law on the allocation of international responsibility between these actors still remains unsettled. The confusion around the nature and normative calibre of the relevant rules, the paucity of relevant international practice supporting them and the lack of a clear and principled framework for their elaboration impairs their application and restricts their ability to act as effective regulatory formulas.

This study aims to offer doctrinal clarity in this area of law and purports to serve as a point of reference for all those with a vested interest in the topic. For the first time since the publication of the ARIO, all international responsibility issues dealing with interactions between member States and international organisations are put together in one book under a common approach. Structured around a systematisation of the interactions between these actors, the study provides an analytical framework for the regulation of indirect responsibility scenarios. Based on the ideas of the intellectual fathers of international law, such as Scelle's 'dédoublement fonctionnel' theory and Ago's 'derivative responsibility' model, the book employs old ideas to add original argumentation to a topic that has been dealt with extensively by recent commentators.

Symposium: Adjudicating the International Responsibility of the EU

On June 14, 2019, the European Society of International Law, in collaboration with the Court of Justice of the European Union, will hold a symposium at the Court on "Adjudicating the International Responsibility of the EU." The program is here.

SFDI: Le standard de due diligence et la responsabilité internationale

The Société Française pour le Droit International has published Le standard de due diligence et la responsabilité internationale : Journée d'étude franco-italienne du Mans (Pedone 2018). Contents include:

• Sarah Cassella, Les travaux de la Commission du droit international sur la responsabilité internationale et le standard de due diligence
• Yann Kerbrat, Le standard de due diligence, catalyseur d’obligations conventionnelles et coutumières pour les Etats
• Serena Forlati, L’objet des différentes obligations primaires de diligence : prévention, cessation, répression… ?
• Karine Bannelier, Le standard de due diligence et la cyber-sécurité
• Arnaud de Nanteuil, Due diligence et investissements étrangers
• Helene Raspail, Due diligence et droits de l’homme
• Gabriella Venturini, Les obligations de diligence dans le droit international humanitaire
• Sandrine Maljean-Dubois, Les obligations de diligence dans la pratique : la protection de l’environnement
• Ida Caracciolo, Due diligence et droit de la mer
• Evelyne Lagrange, La responsabilité des organisations internationales pour violation d’une obligation de diligence
• Paolo Palchetti, La violation par l’Union européenne d’une obligation de diligence
• Pasquale de Sena, La « due diligence » et le lien entre le sujet et le risque qu’il faut prévenir : quelques observations
• Pierre d’Argent & Alexia de Vaucleroy, Le contenu de l’omission illicite : la non utilisation de moyens raisonnables
• Patrick Jacob, Le contenu de la responsabilité de l’Etat négligent
• Massimo Starita, Négligence illicite et responsabilités multiples : partage ou cumul de responsabilités ?
• Riccardo Pisillo Mazzeschi, Le chemin étrange de la due diligence : d’un concept mystérieux à un concept surévalué

Brunner: Der „DARIO“ - Artikelentwurf über die Verantwortlichkeit Internationaler Organisationen: Eine kritische Analyse

Dominik Brunner has published Der „DARIO“ - Artikelentwurf über die Verantwortlichkeit Internationaler Organisationen: Eine kritische Analyse (Peter Lang 2018). Here's the abstract:

Aufgrund der zunehmenden Bedeutung von Internationalen Organisationen (IO) ist deren Verantwortlichkeit für völkerrechtswidrige Handlungen mittlerweile eine zentrale dogmatische Frage des Allgemeinen Völkerrechts und auch in der Praxis von größter Relevanz. Insofern befasst sich auch die ILC seit 2002 mit dieser Thematik und präsentierte 2011 den Artikelentwurf über die Verantwortlichkeit Internationaler Organisationen (DARIO). Der Autor bietet nicht nur einen Überblick über das grundlegende Konzept der Verantwortlichkeit von IO, sondern analysiert vor allem auch die Kritik und die bestehenden Sonderfälle sowie praktischen Herausforderungen. Nicht zuletzt versucht das Buch, auch die künftige Entwicklung des DARIO und die Kodifikationsreife der Thematik zu evaluieren.

Gasbarri: The International Responsibility of the OSCE

Lorenzo Gasbarri (Univ. College London - Law) has posted The International Responsibility of the OSCE (in The Legal Framework of the OSCE, Mateja Steinbrück Platise, Carolyn Moser, & Anne Peters eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This paper contributes to the research project on the OSCE Legal Framework led by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law. It deals with the OSCE’s international responsibility by distinguishing three different but correlated phenomena: (1) its capacity to develop a legal system; (2) its possession of legal personality, whether international or domestic, does not compromise the existence of the institution as such; and (3) how its international responsibility is dependent upon the fact that the OSCE is either considered as founded by an instrument of international law or by an act of creation not based on international law. The introduction sets the scene describing the work of the International Law Commission. Section 2 further discusses the interaction between legal personality and the development of an ‘original’ or ‘derivative’ legal system. Section 3 then discusses four possibilities: (1) the OSCE possesses a derivative legal system and does not have international legal personality; (2) the OSCE possesses a derivative legal system and does have international legal personality; (3) the OSCE possesses an original legal system and does not have international legal personality; and (4) the OSCE possesses an original legal system and does have international legal personality. This paper does not define once and for all what the OSCE is and how its legal responsibility is to be assessed, but instead discusses the potential consequences that different legal constructions would have on its responsibility.The paper contributes to the law of international organizations analyzing how their international responsibility is affected by the adoption of one or another concept of legal system.

Puma: Complicità di Stati nell'illecito internazionale

Giuseppe Puma (Università LUMSA, Palermo - Law) has published Complicità di Stati nell'illecito internazionale (Giappichelli 2018). Here's the abstract:

The aim of this study is an analysis of complicity of States in internationally wrongful acts of other States or international organizations, set forth by art. 16 of the Draft of articles on the international responsibility of States and art. 58 of the Draft of articles on the responsibility of international organizations. The work is divided into two parts: in the first one, the author examines whether the rule on complicity may be ascribed to customary international law as well as the constitutive elements of such a rule. The second part deals with complicity of States in the wrongful acts committed by international organizations in the performance of their normative and operative functions.

Nauta: The International Responsibility of NATO and its Personnel during Military Operations

David Nauta (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) has published The International Responsibility of NATO and its Personnel during Military Operations (Brill | Nijhoff 2018). Here's the abstract:

In 1999, the Alliance mistakenly bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. Around the same period, allegations were made regarding its involvement in human trafficking and forced prostitution in Bosnia-Herzegovina. A decade later, NATO airplanes hit a fuel truck causing significant civilian casualties in Kunduz, Afghanistan. After more than 60 years of existence and a track-record of more than 30 missions performed worldwide, it is surprising that there is still uncertainty on the scope and content of NATO’s responsibility for wrongful conduct during its military operations. This timely book deals with the international responsibility of NATO during military operations. It examines, the status of the Alliance, the existence of international obligations and conditions of attribution of conduct in NATO.

Heupel & Zürn: Protecting the Individual from International Authority

Monika Heupel (Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg - Politics) & Michael Zürn (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung; Freie Universität Berlin - International Relations) have published Protecting the Individual from International Authority: Human Rights in International Organizations (Cambridge Univ. Press 2017). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

International organizations (IOs) develop institutional provisions to make sure that their policies do not violate human rights. Accordingly, whilst IOs have a greater scope of action and ability to promote collective goods than ever before, they also have a greater capacity to do harm. Based on ten case studies on UN and EU sanctions policy, UN and NATO peacekeeping, and World Bank and IMF lending, this book examines human rights violations which can arise from the actions of IOs rather than those of states. It further explains how powerful IOs have introduced human rights protection provisions and analyzes the features of these provisions, including differences in their design and quality. This book provides evidence of a novel legitimation strategy authoritative IOs draw on that has, as yet, never been systematically studied before.

Nollkaemper: Responsibility

André Nollkaemper (Univ. of Amsterdam - Law) has posted Responsibility (in Concepts for International Law - Contributions to Disciplinary Thought, Jean d’Aspremont & Sahib Singh eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

The idea that international law requires that a breach is undone and reparation is provided is central to law as such – no less so to international law. Take away the notion of responsibility, and much of how we think about international law and why it matters starts to transform. This paper explores the structuring role of responsibility in international legal discourse, and discusses how transformations in the international legal system that move the dominant interstate system to the background inevitably affect the structuring role of international responsibility.

Moelle: The International Responsibility of International Organisations

Moritz P. Moelle (Federal Foreign Office, Germany) has published The International Responsibility of International Organisations: Cooperation in Peacekeeping Operations (Cambridge Univ. Press 2017). Here's the abstract:

The International Responsibility of International Organisations addresses the joint responsibility of organisations for violations of international law committed during the deployment of peacekeeping operations. More specifically, it inquires if and under which circumstances - in terms of the notion of control - international organisations can be jointly responsible. The author analyses the practice of international organisations (the United Nations, NATO, the European Union, the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States) on an inter-institutional level, as well as in the field in the form of five case studies. The likelihood and distribution of responsibility between international organisations engaged in peacekeeping operations is affected by the different layers of applicable primary norms (Security Council mandates, internal law of the organisations, international humanitarian and human rights law). Although external pressure may contribute to enhancing the effectiveness of holding international organisations jointly responsible, any substantial measures and mechanisms can only be implemented with the participation of states and international organisations.