INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS, SUCCESSION

Abstract

This chapter discusses the issues of succession of international organizations. Succession of international organizations is guided by the principle that international organizations are established to pursue common interests of their member States. To meet these States' lasting needs, the continuity of their pertinent functions must be ensured not only beyond the extinction of the intergovernmental body originally entrusted with these tasks but also beyond changes in its other objectives, jurisdiction, or institutional structure. The minute number and small import of exceptions confirm rather than cast doubt on this rule, as experience shows that States' motives for divesting themselves of specific tasks and conferring them on such a body are generally unaffected by new circumstances and, thus, are largely permanent in character. The continued exercise of an organization's functions by a successor institution may be provided for in treaties or other definitive arrangements of an equivalent nature, such as by intraorganizational lawmaking of the organizations involved. These agreements may be endorsed by the member States of the old body or bodies that have duly renounced the constituent instruments of the moribund institutions.