The Legal Position of Intergovernmental Organizations - (Legal Aspects of International Organizations) by Peter H F Bekker (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book is the first treatise in English to present an overall functional necessity approach to the study of the legal position of intergovernmental organizations, particularly their legal status (personality/capacity/powers) and immunities.

Book Synopsis

This book is the first treatise in English to present an overall functional necessity approach to the study of the legal position of intergovernmental organizations. According to this approach, an international organization is entitled to (no more than) what is necessary for the exercise of its functions in the fulfillment of its purposes. The book embodies a three-step analysis that links an organization's legal status (personality/ capacity/powers) and immunities to the functions and purposes of the organization. The book also reviews existing methods of counterbalancing organizational immunities and includes the International Tin Council litigation as a case study.

With a Foreword by Sir Robert Jennings.

"It is a book which deserves a place in specialized international law collections, and certainly on the shelves of anyone, be they a government or private party, who has any legal dealings with international organizations."
--Maurice Mendelson, Book Review, XXIII(4) Law Books in Review 159 (1996)

Review Quotes

"It is a book which deserves a place in specialized international law collections, and certainly on the shelves of anyone, be they a government or private party, who has any legal dealings with international organizations."
--Maurice Mendelson, Book Review, XXIII(4) Law Books in Review 159 (1996)

"Peter Bekker's work on the legal position of intergovernmental organisations is an important contribution to this area of the law. ... The strength of this book is its laying out of a clear and flexible framework for the consideration of organisational immunity. It is a reasonably technical discussion, although it is well illustrated by reference to practical examples, with particularly good use made of UN practice, and relevant work of the ILC. ... [I]t is quite a practical guide for those creating and dealing with intergovernmental organisations."
--Michelle Jarvis, Book Review, 16 Australian Yearbook of International Law 380 (1995)

"The author presents a coherent general theory on the basis of the immunity of intergovernmental organizations from national jurisdictions and on the limitations of such immunities."
--Ignaz Seidl-Hohenveldern, Book Review, 49 Zeitschrift für öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht 432 (1995)

"In his book Bekker has demonstrated that functional necessity is an important concept in the study of the immunities of international organizations. ... Bekker has made an important contribution to the common law of international organizations ... ."
--Finn Seyersted & Geir Ulfstein, Book Review, 65 Nordic Journal of International Law 299 (1996)

About the Author

Peter H.F. Bekker, Ph.D., is Professor and Chair in International Law at the University of Dundee's Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy and regularly appears before international tribunals as a member of the New York Bar.