Definition of international legal personality add from book inter law s

In the international community, entities who are endowed with rights and obligations under public
international law are said to have international legal personality. The entities with this legal
personality include states, international organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and to some
limited extent private individuals and corporations within a state.

(Add in inter organizations

For an international organization to be considered eligible for International Legal
Personality status it should at least have permanent association of states, with legal
objects, have distinct legal powers and purposes from the member states and must
be able to exercise power internationally, not only within its own domestic system.)
(One important exception is the humanitarian organization the Red Cross. The
International Committee of the Red Cross, based in Switzerland, has a unique status
within international law as an inter-governmental organization and as a guardian of
the Geneva Convention of 19494 advocating the protection of victims of armed
conflicts. It is neither an international organization nor a non-governmental
organization, but has a special legal status under the treaty law by virtue of its
important function in upholding the protection of civilians in armed conflicts.5
Sovereign states were the first to gain International Legal Personality, followed by
non-state actors, such as international companies and certain non-government
organizations, with individual people being the last to be considered as eligible for
this privilege. Originally individuals were not considered to have the capacity to
enjoy rights and duties under international law in their own right, but rather these
were derived from the state to which they belonged. However, there is no principle
of international law that prevents individuals from being recognized as subjects of
international law. With human rights becoming more popular the case of individual
people not being recognized became even more important, especially in cases of an
individual wishing to sue the state.)
(As previously mentioned various corporations conduct their businesses across
numerous countries. Corporations interact with states and become legal entities
under municipal law: sometimes they tend to negotiate with states from a position
of great power, however most of them do not have this privilege. Instead they
become entities under municipal law. Some countries might offer very favourable
conditions with the purpose of attracting greater investment but sometimes
corporations are closely linked with their home countries which may use these
corporations to spread their own interests. This is very often seen in countries such
asChina uses its own banking system and construction firms to prove to the world
that it is indeed a major and trust-worthy player on the international level)

Why legal personality matter

The reason why the United Nations

Organisation is important when talking of International Legal Personality is because

of the period following the Second World War, during which states received a
characteristic of a non-human entity regarded by law to have the status of
personhood. This legal personality attributed to states implied that they have a
legal name, rights, protections, privileges, responsibilities and liabilities under law
just as any person does.2 It is important to understand that the status of
international personality is not exclusively reserved for states. In modern days
numerous international companies have received this status as well, simply due to
the nature of their business (cross-border)
International legal personality cannot exist without International Law. As stated in
an earlier paper, International Law is of great relevance to the interconnected and
interdependent world because it acts as a universal set of rules and principles
concerning the relations between sovereign states. Some areas where it has proved
to be of great importance include: telecommunications and transport, international
economic law, international crime and extradition, human rights, use of armed
force, counter terrorism
Various parties with legal personality attributed to them act as a single entity for
legal purposes. They can act independently of individual members, thus enabling it
to sue or be sued, enter contracts, incur debt, buy property and most importantly
pay various taxes. The idea of legal personality is not absolute. Sometimes there is
closer attention paid to the individual agent involved in certain actions or decisions
rather than the institution as a whole. Some of the most common examples of
international personalities include: corporations, companies, sovereign states,
international organizations This link between International Law and International
Legal Personality is very important as its core purpose is to resolve international
disputes. Like any legal system, international law is designed to regulate and shape
behaviour, to prevent violations and to provide remedies for violations when they
occur. Though the purpose of international law is noble and important, it is equally
important to understand that without the legal personality international law would
not be as efficient. For international legal personality enables individual states to be
personified and as such facilitate legal procedure. Thus states could be taken to
court or accused of breach of international law. Those wishing to take action against
them can do so with the support of the clearly defined legal system.
Whether concerned with an institution based in a sovereign state or a multinational
corporation, there are several main features that help us identify the presence or
absence of legal grounds for an institution to be granted this privileged status.
Some of the main ones are: 1. The ability to access international tribunals to claim
or to act on rights conferred by international law. 2. The ability to implement some
or all of the obligations imposed by international law. 3. The power to make
agreements, such as treaties, binding by international law. 4. To enjoy some or all of
the immunities from the jurisdiction of the domestic courts of other states. As
mentioned earlier, the International Legal personality is not exclusively reserved for
states. Some non-state actors have it as well. Most notably, the United Nations was

founded on these principles. A good example is the reparation case of the

International Court of Justice confirmed
that the United Nations was entitled to reparations in its own right for the death of
one of its members while engaged in UN related business.3 The United Nations has
the capacity to bring claims, conclude international agreements and to enjoy
privileges and immunities from national jurisdictions. One could even argue that the
Organisation has the power to impose resolutions on its member states. This is
achieved by the Security Council which is the only body within the United Nations
that can make legally binding resolutions. The Security Council is a prime example
of how states recognize and respect the legal personality of the United Nations.
States are aware that in case they refuse to accept the resolution passed by the
Security Council, that same institution holds the legal right to take adequate
measures, guaranteed by the statute of the United Nations, against the party that
refuses to adopt the resolution.
International law states that, an entity which meets the international

legal

criteria of statehood is able to be a State.11 And the Article 1 of

the Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of States provides the criteria of
the statehood. According the Convention a state should have; a) a permanent
population b) a defined territory c) government and d) capacity to enter into
relations with other states. Similarly, the Arbitration Commission of the European
Conference on Yugoslavia in Opinion No. 1 declared that the State is commonly
defined as a community which consists of a territory and a population subject to an
organised political authority and that such a State is characterized by
sovereignty12 a) a permanent population; there must be some people to establish
the existence of a State but there is not a specification of a minimum number of
people and again there is not a requirement that all of the people be national of the
state.13 b) territory; the second qualification is territory where the permanent
population live on. However, there is not a necessity of having well- established
boundaries as the
international Court of Justice said in the North Sea Continental Shelf cases, ...
there is... no rule that the land frontiers of a state must be fully delimited and
defined.14 The wellknown example is the uncertainty of the land frontiers of Israel
when it was admitted as a State. 15 c) government; A State requires a government
that functions as a political body within the law of the land. But it is not a condition
precedent for recognition as an independent State16 d) capacity to enter into
relations with other states; the fourth and last qualification is about independency,
in other words independence is indicated by the criterion of capacity to enter into
relations with other states.17

What are the rights and duties, the powers and

immunities that attach to an entity because it is a State?
Crawford (2006, pp 40-41) gives a list of five exclusive
and general legal characteristics of States: (1) States have
plenary competence to perform acts in the international spheremake treaties and so
on. (2) States are exclusively competent with respect to their internal affairsexclusive means plenary and not subject to control by other States. (3) States are
not subject to international process without their consent. (4) States are regarded in
international law as equal, it is a formal, not a moral or political principle (5)
States entitled to benefit from the Lotus presumption, especially that any
derogation from the previous principles must be clearly established. 18 These are
the criteria and the consequences of being a State, the next chapter will focus on to
be accepted as a State.
CONCLUSION
One might consider that International Legal Personality has become a major success
which proves that both states and non-state actors need it in order to function
efficiently at the international level. In addition to this it is important to note that
the idea of International Legal Personality is a concept of Western law which has
now spread to more or less all legal systems. International Law provides actors at
the international level with rules and guidelines on how to act. On the other hand
International Legal Personality allows them to be punished should International Law
be breached. The United Nations Organisation, the most successful aspect of
multilateral diplomacy, is based on both International Law and International Legal
Personality. Both of these have enabled the United Nations to act effectively as the
parliament of the world where states can debate and discuss various issues.
Frequently the United Nations, armed with International Law, has managed to
prevent or postpone a conflict in various parts of the world.