The Legal Status of Regional International Organizations as Third Parties in Accordance with the Law of International Treaties

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the principle of pacta tertiis nec nocent nec prosunt (treaties do not create either obligations or rights for third states without their consent) in the law of treaties with respect to regional international organizations. A retrospective analysis of the application of the pacta tertiis principle has shown that its normative formalization in codified acts of the law of international treaties does not fully allow using their regulatory properties in the context of the transformation of international legal order. In recent decades, there are some clear trends in the international legal landscape. They objectively reduce the full state-centricity of the world legal order which in turn suggests that it is incorrect to maintain a complete analogy in the legal status of states and international organizations as subjects of international law. The emerging expansion of the regulatory impact of international law, the completion of significant codification projects and the accumulation of decisions of international courts and tribunals raises the question of the need for a diversified approach to the application of provisions provided by the law of international treaties, depending on the subject of the relevant relations. The article outlines further prospects for the development of the pacta tertiis principle in relation to international treaties concluded by regional international organizations. According to the author, there is a high probability of further differentiation of the effects of international treaties among persons, depending on the subject composition of the relevant international legal relations. At the moment, the rules and procedures used in relation to states, as the main subjects of international law, are considered as universal legal solutions. The conducted research has shown that the chosen approach is not always able to provide appropriate legal impact in relation to other subjects of international law.