Engström, Viljam --- "Reasoning on Powers of Organizations" [2011] ELECD 519; in Klabbers, Jan; Wallendahl, Åsa (eds), "Research Handbook on the Law of International Organizations" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Research Handbook on the Law of International Organizations

Editor(s): Klabbers, Jan; Wallendahl, Åsa

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847201355

Section: Chapter 3

Section Title: Reasoning on Powers of Organizations

Author(s): Engström, Viljam

Number of pages: 28

Extract:

3 Reasoning on powers of organizations
Viljam Engström



INTRODUCTION

International organizations assert their influence in various ways.1 They are
first and foremost fora for cooperation between (mainly) states and their task
is to structure the collective action of these states in various ways. An organi-
zation may provide services, create actors, draft treaties, launch initiatives, and
monitor members in various ways. Organizations can also have a more subtle
impact for example through organizing information, defining concepts, strik-
ing balances between interdependent political alternatives, and by transmitting
models of `good' behaviour.2 The influence that organizations have on our
daily lives need not hereby arise from the imposition of direct obligations
upon members.3 This means that the impact that an organization has cannot be
exhaustively grasped by only looking at its competences. Nevertheless, when
international lawyers want to know what an organization is legally entitled to
do interest is turned to `the law of organizations' and particularly the issue of
legal powers.
The notion of legal powers does not capture any uniform set of activities.
Instead, every organization possesses an individual set of powers. Whereas for
many organizations the most clear exercise of a legal power may be the
conclusion of an agreement with the power company at the location of its
headquarters or the adoption of the organization budget, some organizations
are equipped with means for restraining the sovereign jurisdiction of their
members (most notably this is the case in the European Union (EU)). In addi-
tion, ...