1. COMMON INSTITUTIONAL ISSUES
CHAPTER TWO

2. CHAPTER OBJECTIVE
Explain how the personality of international organisations can be acquired;
Identify powers of international organisations;
Discuss the immunities and privileges possessed by I.O
Highlight the laws governing the activities of I.O
Discuss the liability of international organisations;
Articulate major issues relevant to membership;
List grounds of dissolutions
Identify rules governing succession.

3. International Personality
Attribution of ‘legal personality’ means acceptance of an entity as having status, capacity and powers or, in brief, that it is a legal person.
In the context of international law, the term is principally used to describe the legal existence of international organisations rather than the legal character or capacities of individual human beings.

4. an international organisation is a legal structure which owes its existence to some decision (generally by states, though possibly by other international organisations) to create it, to an agreement establishing the terms on which it is constituted and to the implementation of such decision and constitution.

5. Characteristics of an international organisation
Existence of an entity distinct from its creators;
The entity has the capacity and power to act under and be regulated by international law;
The organisation rather than its members acts on matters within its area of competence.

6. In some cases, the constitution of an international organisation expressly provides for it to have personality of international organisation; but many, if not most, constitutions do not. However, the prevailing view is that even if there is no express provision, international personality is implicit.

7. most constitutions provide either that the organisation shall enjoy the legal capacity necessary to exercise its functions, or that it shall have legal personality and have the capacity to contract, to acquire and dispose of immovable and movable property and to institute legal proceedings.

8. Powers of International Organizations
The acquisition of legal personality by international organisations enables them to exercise some powers.
Such powers may be expressly laid down in the constituent instruments or may arise subsidiary as implied powers, being those deemed necessary for fulfilment of the functions of the particular organisation.
Among others, international organisations have the capacity to conclude international treaties, sue or be sued and to own assets.

9. Privileges and Immunities
In order to carry out these functions more effectively, states and their representatives benefit from a variety of privileges and immunities.
International organisations will also be entitled to the grant of privileges and immunities for their assets, properties and representatives.

10. The two situations are not, of course, analogous in practice, since, for example, the basis of state immunities may be seen in terms of the sovereign equality of states and reciprocity, while this is not true in respect of international organisations, both because they are not in a position of sovereign equality and because they are unable to grant immunities as a reciprocal gesture.

11. The basis for the immunities accorded to international organisations is that they are necessitated by the effective exercise of their functions.
The issue that deserves consideration here is the level of immunities in the light of such functional necessity.

12. Article 105 0f the Charter provides that:
The Organization shall enjoy in the territory of each of its Members such privileges and immunities as are necessary for the fulfilment of its purposes.
Representatives of the Members of the United Nations and officials of the Organization shall similarly enjoy such privileges and immunities as are necessary for the independent exercise of their functions in connection with the Organization.
The General Assembly may make recommendations with a view to determining the details of the application of paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article or may propose conventions to the Members of the United Nations for this purpose.

13. The above general provisions have been supplemented by the
General Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations (1946),
The Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the Specialised Agencies (1947).

14. With regard to the position of representatives of states to international organisations, article IV, section 11, of the UN General Convention (1946) provides for the following privileges and immunities:
Immunity from personal arrest or detention and from seizure of their personal baggage, and in respect of words spoken or written and all acts done by them in their capacity as representatives, immunity from legal process of every kind;
Inviolability for all papers and documents;
The right to use codes and to receive papers or correspondence by courier or in sealed bags;

15. Exemption in respect of themselves and their spouses from immigration restrictions, alien registration or national service obligations in the state they are visiting or through which they are passing in the exercise of their functions;
The same facilities in respect of currency or exchange restrictions as are accorded to representatives of foreign governments on temporary official missions;
The same immunities and facilities in respect of their personal baggage as are accorded to diplomatic envoys; and also
Such other privileges, immunities and facilities not inconsistent with the foregoing as diplomatic envoys, except that they shall have no right to claim exemption from custom duties on goods imported (otherwise than as part of their personal baggage) or from excise duties or sales taxes.

16. In the case of immunity from jurisdiction, section 2 of the UN General Convention 1946 provides that:
The United Nations, its property and assets wherever located and by whomsoever held, shall enjoy immunities from every form of legal process except in so far as in any particular case it has expressly waived its immunity. It is, however, understood that no waiver of immunity shall extend to any measure execution.

17. The Law governing the activities of international organizations
as a general rule, the applicable or proper or personal law of international organisations that governs their activities is international law. In addition, the organisation in question may well have entered into treaty relationships with particular states, for example, in the case of a head quarters agreement, and these relationships will also be governed by international law.

18. However, the applicable law in particular circumstances may be a domestic law. Thus, where the organisation is purchasing or leasing land or entering into contracts for equipment or services, such activities will normally be subject to the appropriate national law. Tortious liability as between the organisation and private individual will generally be subject to domestic law, but tortuous activity may be governed by international law depending upon the circumstances,

19. Responsibility of International Organizations
The basis of international responsibility will be the breach of an international obligation and such obligations will depend upon the situation. the obligations entered into by member states to enable the agents of the UN to perform their duties were obligations owed to the organisation. Thus, the organisation has, in the case of a breach of such obligations, 'the capacity to claim adequate reparation, and that in assessing this reparation it is authorised to include the damage suffered by the victim or by persons entitled through him'.

20. Membership to international organizations
Admission and its procedure
Article 3 of the UN Charter. This article provides that the original members are those who either took part in the negotiations of the Charter and signed and ratified it, or had previously signed the 1942 Declaration by United Nations and subsequently signed and ratified the Charter. The latter construction was chosen so as to accommodate Poland, which had not been in a position to take part in the negotiations in San Francisco.

21. When it comes to deciding on membership, the point of departure is that each and every organization will have its own rules on the matter. Thus, by way of example, Article 4, paragraph. 1, of the UN Charter provides: 'Membership in the United Nations is open to all other peace-loving states which accept the obligations contained in the present Charter and, in the Judgment of the Organization, are able and willing to carry out these obligations.'

22. conditions for membership.
Article 4, then, lays down four conditions for membership.
only states are allowed to join; other entities cannot join.
states applying for admission must be peace-loving.
aspirant UN members must accept the obligations of the Charter.
aspiring members must be able and willing to carry out the obligations of the Charter.

23. Withdrawal from membership
Especially in relation to amendments not accepted by all members, it may be useful to have some sort of provision concerning the possibility of withdrawal from the organization. Earlier, with the League of Nations, a withdrawal provision had been given pride of place in the very opening article of the Covenant, in order to appease the expected opposition in the US Senate.

24. With the UN, in the end, a withdrawal provision was not included, but on the idea, or so it seems, that such would be redundant rather than contrary to prevailing international law. Some argued that the right of withdrawal was customary in nature, others that it was merely an application of the rebus sic stantibus doctrine, and yet others that it was rather best perceived as inherent, following from the sovereignty of states.

25. Article 56 thereof deals with withdrawal from a treaty containing no withdrawal provisions, and lays down, in principle, that in such a case the treaty is not subject to withdrawal. Yet, Article 56 specifies two possible exceptions. First, where a right of withdrawal can nonetheless be established to have been the intention of the drafters, such intention must be honoured. Second, Article 56 provides that, in some cases, the right of withdrawal may be implied in the nature of an agreement.

26. Expulsion from membership
Like the Covenant of the League of Nations, the UN Charter provides for expulsion.
Article 6 holds that the General Assembly, upon the recommendation of the Security Council, may expel a member if it has persistently violated the principle is contained in the Charter