Immunity rules are part and parcel of the law of international organizations. It has long been accepted that international organizations and their staff need to enjoy immunity from the jurisdiction of national courts. However, it is the application of these rules in practice that increasingly causes controversy. Claims against international organizations are brought before national courts by those who allegedly suffer from their activities. These can be both natural and legal persons such as companies. National courts, in particular lower courts, have often been less willing to recognize the immunity of the organization concerned than the organization’s founding fathers. Likewise, public opinion and legal writings frequently criticize international organizations for invoking their immunity and for the lack of adequate means of redress for claimants. It is against this background that an international conference was organized at Leiden University in June 2013. A number of highly qualified academics and practitioners gave presentations and prepared written contributions that are collected in this book. This book is published to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the International Organizations Law Review, in which these contributions have also been published (Vol. 10, issue 2, 2014).

This book explores the relationship between the jurisdictional immunities of states and international organizations, in an attempt to bring clarity and predictability to the law of international immunities. Embracing a holistic approach, this book charts the history, purpose, scope, competing norms, and exceptions and waivers for the jurisdictional immunities related to states and then international organizations, respectively. Finally, it focuses on the relationship between the two areas analyzing in detail the differences and commonalities between the two.

International organizations are increasingly operating across borders and engaging in legal transactions in virtually all jurisdictions. This makes, familiarity with the applicable law and practice imperative for both international organizations and those who engage in legal relations with them. Furthermore, the issue of whether, how, and to what extent domestic courts take into account decisions of foreign and international courts and tribunals in their own decision-making has become increasingly important in recent years. This book provides a comprehensive empirical study of this transnational judicial dialogue, focusing on the law and practice of domestic jurisdictions concerning the legal personality, privileges, and immunities of international organizations. It presents a selection of detailed country-by-country studies, examining the manner of judicial dialogue across domestic jurisdictions, and between national and international courts. The approach taken in this book intersects with three highly topical areas of international legal scholarship: the rapidly evolving law of international institutions; the burgeoning research into the role of domestic courts in the international legal system; and the recent rise of empirically-oriented legal scholarship. Utilizing OUP's International Law in Domestic Courts database, the book presents analysis of little-known cases which have real international significance, illustrating the impact and extent of transnational judicial dialogue in the international legal system. The book provides important perspectives on the evolution and status of the law of immunity of international organizations, and contributes to the understanding of relationships between national courts, and between national and international courts.

In December 2011, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the International Law Commission's articles on the responsibility of international organizations, bringing to conclusion not only nearly ten years of reflection by the Commission, governments and organizations on this specific topic, but also decades of study of the wider subject of international responsibility, which had initially focused on State responsibility. Parallel to this reflection by the Commission, diplomats and public officials, the body of international case-law and literature on the many facets of the topic has steadily been growing. Responsibility of International Organizations: Essays in Memory of Sir Ian Brownlie contributes to the body of international literature by collecting a broad spectrum of different and sometimes differing perspectives from well-known experts in the field, ranging from the bench to the Commission, academia, and the world of in-house counsel. The book is also a memorial to the renowned Sir Ian Brownlie, himself a former Chairman of the International Law Commission who, as a leading scholar and practitioner, greatly contributed to the reflection on international responsibility, including the responsibility of international organizations. Edited by Maurizio Ragazzi, a former pupil of Sir Ian, the book is an ideal companion to International Responsibility Today, a collection of essays on international responsibility which the same editor presented in 2005 in memory of Oscar Schachter, and to which Sir Ian Brownlie had contributed. The essays collected in Responsibility of International Organizations: Essays in Memory of Sir Ian Brownlie, conveniently grouped by the editor under broad areas for the reader's benefit, will be relevant not only to all those interested in this specific subject but also, more generally, to all those engaged in the field of international law and the law of international organizations.

The Role of International Administrative Law at International Organizations, edited by Peter Quayle, is centred on the law of employment relations at international organizations, and divided into four parts. It examines the interplay between international administrative law and the jurisdictional immunities of international organizations. It explores the principles and practice of resolving employment related disputes at intergovernmental institutions. It considers the dynamic development of international administrative tribunals. It examines international administrative law as the basis for the effectiveness and integrity of international organizations. Together academics, jurists and practitioners portray the employment law that governs the international civil service and the resulting accountability of the United Nations, UN Specialized Agencies, and international financial institutions, like the World Bank and IMF.

Few topics of international law speak to the imagination as much as international immunities. Questions pertaining to immunity from jurisdiction or execution under international law surface on a frequent basis before national courts, including at the highest levels of the judicial branch and before international courts or tribunals. Nevertheless, international immunity law is and remains a challenging field for practitioners and scholars alike. Challenges stem in part from the uncertainty pertaining to the customary content of some immunity regimes said to be in a 'state of flux', the divergent – and at times directly conflicting - approaches to immunity in different national and international jurisdictions, or the increasing intolerance towards impunity that has accompanied the advance of international criminal law and human rights law. Composed of thirty-four expertly written contributions, the present volume uniquely provides a comprehensive tour d'horizon of international immunity law, traversing a wealth of national and international practice.

The past century has been a period of revolutionary change in many fields of human activity, in institutions and in thought. This period has seen the need of adjustment of state institutions and legal concepts to the needs of greater international cooperation. During the half century preceding the First World War, cooperation by governments outside the traditional diplomatic channels and procedures was largely limited to highly technical organizations, commonly referred to as public international unions, dealing with such matters as the im provement of postal communications and the control of contagious diseases. With the establishment of the League of Nations and the International Labor Organization at the end of the First World War, organized international cooperation assumed greater importance and the need was recognized of giving to the instruments of such cooper ation legal status and rights which would facilitate the effective performance of their functions. This proved to be a difficult adjustment for legal theory to make since the enjoyment of special privileges and immunities had been based in traditional international law on the fiction of state sovereignty. The new international organizations, while performing functions of the kind performed by national govern ments, were far from possessing the powers of such governments. The failure of the League of Nations to achieve its major purpose did not signify any permanent decline in the role of organized inter national cooperation.

A radical, empirical investigation of how national courts 'react' to disputes involving international organizations. Through comprehensive analysis of the attitudes and techniques of national courts and underlying political motives, Professor Reinisch first describes various legal approaches that result in adjudication or non-adjudication of disputes concerning international organizations. Secondly he discusses policy issues pro and contra the adjudication of such disputes. His study then scrutinizes the rationale for immunizing international organizations from domestic litigations, especially the 'functional' need for immunity, and substantially debates the implications of a human rights-based right of access to court on immunizing international organizations against national jurisdictions. Finally he identifies contemporary trends, seeking to ascertain whether a more flexible principle exempting certain types of disputes from domestic adjudication might substitute for the traditional immunity concept, which would simultaneously guarantee the functioning and independence of international organizations without impairing private parties' access to a fair dispute settlement procedure.

The law of immunity of states, of international organisations, and of public officials is one of the most important and most controversial topics of international law. The book consists of five parts: ‘State Immunity – National Practice’; State Immunity before the ICJ – The case Germany v Italy; ‘Commercial Activities and State Immunity’; ‘Immunity and Impunity’; and ‘Immunities of International Organisations’. Although immunities are in principle firmly anchored in international law, their precise legal implications are often unclear. The book takes up a number of new trends and challenges in this field and assesses them within the framework of global constitutionalism and multilevel governance. Contains chapters in both English and French.

Recent examples such as the cholera outbreak in Haiti demonstrate that individual victims of human rights violations by international organizations are frequently left in the cold. Following an examination of the human rights obligations of international organizations, this book scrutinizes their dispute settlement mechanisms as well as the conflict between their immunities and the right of access to justice before national jurisdictions. It concludes with normative proposals addressed both to international organizations and to national judges confronted with such cases.