S International Organizations

International organizations law refers to the branch of international law devoted both to broadly organizing the international community and, more specifically, to the operation of international institutions. The latter have become the preeminent form of international organization in the last 150 years, culminating with the creation of the League of Nations and the United Nations. International organizations have by some accounts prospered far beyond these universal and generalist institutions to include a range of regional or functionally specialized bodies. The aim of this course will be to study a number of cross-cutting issues that are particularly topical and raise fundamental questions about the nature and finality of international organizations. These include the international legal subjecthood of international organizations and their potential responsibility, including for human rights violations; the challenges of reform, notably of entrenched bodies such as the UN’s Security council; the issue of immunities; and the nature of the international civil service.