Support of the foreign language profile of law tuition at the Faculty of Law in Olomouc CZ.1.07/2.2.00/ Law of International Organisations - History - Palacky University Olomouc Faculty of Law

The very starting point: The Peace of Westphalia 1648

The starting point: Assumptions of the Westphalian Legal System 1. Sovereign States as the one and only subject of international law. 2. Sovereignty. There is no legal authority above the state; states are assumed to have control of activities within their borders. 3. Equality. All states are legally equal: here is no explicit hierarchy in the system, in contrast to a medieval or imperial system. States still differ substantially in their size and capabilities 4. Noninterference and nonintervention. States should not attempt to intervene in the internal affairs of other states except through war. 5. States have a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence. War, if conducted properly, is considered a legitimate means of settling international disputes. Only states can engage in such violence. 6. Neutrality. States have the right to remain outside the disputes of other states.

Traditional International Law Bilateral treaties and Diplomacy Absolute sovereignty (war) Traditional international law = law of co- existence / of coordination (Functional Law) –Jurisdiction of states –Delimitation of maritime zones –Access to each other´s courts...

Modern International Law Global commons –Kyoto Agreement (environment) –Prohibition of the use of force by peremptory norms of IL Scientific cooperation on health, agriculture, environment, population etc. Monetary and Economic cooperation Human Rights –Universal Declaration of Human Rights –International Criminal Court (Multifunction) international organizations (e.g. EU, AU) –Today: States may voluntarily concede authority to an international/supranational organization –e.g. EU, the law of which is directly applicable on the territory of its member states.

Sources of International Law Custom Bilateral Treaty Multilateral Treaty –In many cases, treaties are negotiated specifically to define areas of international law and then opened for signature Actions and resolutions of international organizations Decisions of the International Court of Justice –These are very rare...

Forerunners of IO (1) IO as i.a. defence / peace keeping tool –Defence alliances –Hanseatic League (economic alliance of trading cities) –Grand Alliance 1686/88 –German Confederation (Deutscher Bund) 1815 –The Confederation of the Rhine (Rheinbund; États confédérés du Rhin) confederation of client states of the First French Empire

Forerunners of IO (2) Is there a problem? Let´s have a congress... Multilateral State Conferences: Congress of Vienna 1814/15 Settling issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars/dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire New aspect: constituting peace as a goal of the international community

Peace conferences since 1899 Conferences –Hague Peace Conferences 1899, 1907 –London Peace Conference (on Balkans) 1912/13 –Paris Peace Conference 1919/20 (Versailles) Impact? –No institutionalisation (like e.g. the OSCE…) –No rules on participation –unanimous decisions required –Also small states pariticipate (universal participation)

The true starting point: the 19th century Developments in technology Administrative Unions –Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine (1815) Elbe 1821, Douro (1835), Danube (1856) –International Telecommunication Union (17 May 1865) –Universal Postal Union (Treaty of Bern, signed on October 9, 1874)

International Telecommunication Union monument, Bern, Switzerland: "International Telegraph Union founded at Paris in 1865 on the initiative of the French government. [This monument] erected by a decision of the Telegraph Union made at the international conference at Lisbon in 1908."

International Union of Railway Freight Transportation (1890) International Office of Public Health (1903) Metric Union (1875) International Copyright Union (1886) International Sugar Union (1902) International Institute for Agriculture (1905)

Impact on international law? Growing body of international legal norms / treaties rather than customary IL More detailled regulation on cooperation Membership in IO restrains sovereignty of States!

A qualitative step forward: 1919 Solferino, WW I.,.... The League of Nations: Paris Peace Conference / „Fourteen Points“ speech of Woodrow Wilson (1918): „The program of the world's peace, therefore, is our program; and that program, the only possible program, as we see it, is this: … XIV. A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.“

The League of Nations Organs: –Assembly, Council, Secretariat –Permanent Court of International Justice League's primary goals included: –collective security (no military obligations/economic sanctions) –disarmament, and –settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration (both not obligatory!) Your assessment of the League?

The bitter end of the League of Nations....

"failed ultimately because of the reluctance of nearly all the nations in Europe to proceed to what I might call military sanctions... The real reason, or the main reason, was that we discovered in the process of weeks that there was no country except the aggressor country which was ready for war... [I]f collective action is to be a reality and not merely a thing to be talked about, it means not only that every country is to be ready for war; but must be ready to go to war at once. That is a terrible thing, but it is an essential part of collective security.“ On 23 June 1936, in the wake of the collapse of League efforts to restrain Italy's war of conquest against Abyssinia (Ethiopian Empire), British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin told the House of Commons that collective security had

United Nations

History of United Nations Founding as part of WWII Allied alliance Post-WWII cooperation; ends with UN action in Korea US dominance; Security Council actions blocked by USSR vetos; "Uniting for Peace" procedures established by General Assembly UN involvement in decolonization (e.g. Congo; UNDP); first financial crisis Dominance of „Southern“ States in General Assembly; emphasis on aspects such as urbanization, population, environment Second financial crisis; movement towards bureaucratic reform 1990-present Post-Cold War cooperation; Iraq-Kuwait action; major increase in peacekeeping activities

Major UN Peacekeeping/Peacemaking Operations: Cold War 1948: Palestine, Kashmir 1950: Korea 1956: Suez 1960: Congo 1964: Cyprus 1967: Middle East 1973: Middle East 1978: Lebanon

Major UN Peacekeeping/Peacemaking Operations : Post Cold War : Namibia, Angola 1990/91: Iraq : Western Sahara, Mozambique : Yugoslavia : Cambodia : Somalia : Haiti 1999: Kosovo 1999: East Timor 1999: Congo 2000: Ethiopia/Eritrea

Current challenges facing UN Collective security and the use of force –Korean (1951) and Iraq (1991) are the only cases –Does “ self-defense ” include pre-emptive action (USA in Iraq 2003) Humanitarian intervention / R2P Security Council expansion –Perm. membership for India, Brazil, Germany and Japan? Peace-Building Commission –Follow-up to peacekeeping missions: debate over SC vs GA control

Current challenges facing UN Human Rights Council –Currently too large (53 members) and contains some of the worst human rights offenders Expansion of peacekeeping operations –Cost –Command structure –Institutional support –Legitimacy –Peacekeeping versus peacemaking Budget –Size –Dependence on large donors (8% of members pay 86% of budget) –Unpaid dues, particularly by the United States

What next? currently are more than 250 IGOs worldwide, number continues to rise Supranational organisations (African Union, European Union, etc.)...

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