Melissa (MJ) Durkee (Washington University School of Law), Kristina Daugirdas (University of Michigan Law School), Evan J. Criddle (William & Mary Law School), and Orfeas Chasapis Tassinis (University of Cambridge, Faculty of Law) have posted Are International Organizations Public Authorities? on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
International organizations have served as the institutional backbone of the postwar international system, but they now face sustained challenges to their authority. Are international organizations merely agents of states acting collectively, or do they exercise a form of public authority in their own right? Is their authority functional—derivative of delegated tasks—or does it rest on broader claims of representation or shared purpose?
In this collection of essays, four leading scholars reflect on the roles, authority, and legitimacy of international organizations during an era of shifting legal commitments and political alignments. Melissa J. Durkee’s contribution, “The Missing International Law of Privatization,” surveys the doctrines that might restrain the privatization of international organizations, finds that none of them supplies a standard of publicness or a limit on outsourcing, and asks what institutions have made of that freedom. Kristina Daugirdas’s “No Organization Is an Island: Authority, Legitimacy, and the International Legal System” addresses what it means for international organizations to exercise public authority, while also unpacking the relationship between international organizations’ compliance with international law and their normative legitimacy. Evan Criddle’s essay, “The Constitutional Functions of International Organizations,” makes the case that states must support and participate actively in the work of international organizations in some settings to satisfy their other obligations under international law. Lastly, Orfeas Chasapsis Tassinis’s contribution, “In What Sense Are International Organizations Public Authorities,” seeks to unsettle the categorical distinction between international organizations and states, arguing that both are public authorities with the capacity to exercise public powers and assume obligations under customary international law. Collectively, the diverse perspectives reflected in these essays offer valuable frameworks for understanding and critically evaluating international organizations’ claims to public authority.
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