Cannizzaro, Enzo; Palchetti, Paolo --- "Ultra Vires Acts of International Organizations" [2011] ELECD 530; 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 14

Section Title: Ultra Vires Acts of International Organizations

Author(s): Cannizzaro, Enzo; Palchetti, Paolo

Number of pages: 33

Extract:

14 Ultra vires acts of international
organizations
Enzo Cannizzaro and Paolo Palchetti



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

In its purest meaning, the notion of an ultra vires act refers to acts or actions of
international organizations, which are taken outside the scope of their compe-
tence.1 This notion is therefore intimately connected with the idea of entities
possessing only some (limited) powers of action. By their nature, international
organizations are (only) endowed with those powers conferred to them by their
member states through the founding treaty. It is precisely when international
organizations act beyond their competences, stated expressly or implicitly in
their constituent instrument, that they are deemed to act ultra vires.
By contrast, it is uncommon to apply the notion of an ultra vires act to
measures or actions taken by states.2 To be sure, single organs of states can
act beyond the scope of their competence. However, compliance by states'
organs with internal rules determining the scope of their competence is rele-
vant internationally only in those limited cases in which international law
refers to these domestic rules, and attaches consequences to their breach.3 The
idea that states themselves can act ultra vires, although not logically impossi-
ble, is much more controversial and it seems basically to be confined to those
situations in which states act on the basis of a competence conferred by an
international instrument. All in all, both these situations have particular
features which suggest that they should be excluded from the scope of the
...