Brölmann, Catherine --- "International Organizations and Treaties: Contractual Freedom and Institutional Constraint" [2011] ELECD 527; 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 11

Section Title: International Organizations and Treaties: Contractual Freedom and Institutional Constraint

Author(s): Brölmann, Catherine

Number of pages: 28

Extract:

11 International organizations and treaties:
Contractual freedom and institutional
constraint
Catherine Brölmann



INTRODUCTION ­ ORGANIZATIONS AND TREATIES

In a classic international setting, the conclusion of treaties is the pre-eminent
tool for maintaining legal relations, and a sure sign of independent actorship.
International organizations have long entered the select group of international
treaty-makers, and they are now party to a large number of treaties.
Organizations are also associated with treaty law and practice in other ways:
notably in their role as facilitators for the conclusion of multilateral treaties by
states, sometimes in such a prominent position that one could forget that tech-
nically they are not themselves a contracting party.
This chapter first considers some aspects of the organizing theme in this
book: the distinction between the `functionalist' and the `constitutionalist'
view of international organizations. Subsequent sections then address the prin-
cipal topic: the conclusion of treaties by international organizations. This
includes international organizations' treaty-making practice, the applicable
law of treaties, and specific questions that may arise in relation to international
organizations, as opposed to states: which treaties allow for international orga-
nizations to become a party; and to which treaties is a given organization
allowed to become a party? The latter question usually entails an appraisal of
the `powers' of an organization, which in turn is linked to an interpretation of
the organization's constituent treaty ­ this is briefly discussed in the same
section.
The following section then addresses the role of organizations as forum for
treaty ...