The ESIL Interest Group on International Organizations today announces the launch of a new series, where we interview authors, researchers, and practitioners about their new research and the latest developments concerning international organizations. In this inaugural interview, Catherine Brölmann (University of Amsterdam) and Richard Collins (University College Dublin) interview author Lorenzo Gasbarri (Bocconi University) about... Continue Reading →
On International Institutional Law, its Pedagogy and the Turn to Alternative Approaches
by Negar Mansouri Inspired by an event held in collaboration with the Interest Group, the post first appeared in opiniojuris.org On October 2, the virtual seminar entitled ‘Contested Fundamentals of the Law of International Organizations’, organized jointly by Bocconi University and the interest group on international organizations of the European Society of International Law (ESIL)... Continue Reading →
International Law as Insulation – The Case of the World Bank in the Decolonization Era
This paper maps out how (international) legal concepts and norms were employed during the inter-institutional struggle between the United Nations (UN) and the World Bank (Bank) in the era of decolonization. The first contribution of the paper is historiographical. Drawing on material from the Bank’s (oral) archives, the paper gives an original account of the ways in which the organization bypassed the ‘universalist’ aspirations that were gaining a foothold in the UN’s democratic bodies. Secondly...
Exploring international organisations’ idiosyncratic reluctance to human rights
Arguing that the realization of the function for which they have been created must take precedence over all other considerations, international organisations have tended to present the realization of that function as essential to protecting universal interests. In doing so, they have however contributed to weakening human rights standards. This contribution explores the reasons of that idiosyncratic reluctance to human rights.
