SUBJECTS OF

Ms Shreya
Assistant Professor

INTERNATIONAL LAW
School of Law
CHRIST (Deemed to be
University)
 LEGAL PERSONALITY
 ‘Legal personality’ is the capacity to possess and maintain certain rights, and perform
specific duties.
 The entitlement and circumstances of these rights and duties will depend upon the scope
and character of the law.
 It is the function of the law to apportion such rights and duties to such entities as it sees fit.
 Personality involves the examination of certain concepts within the law such as status,
capacity, competence, as well as the nature and extent of particular rights and duties.
 The whole process operates within the confines of the relevant legal system, which
circumscribes personality, its nature and definition.
 INTERNATIONAL LEGAL
PERSONALITY
 Personality in international law necessitates the consideration of the interrelationship between
rights and duties afforded under the international system and the capacity to enforce claims.
 A range of factors needs to be carefully examined before it can be determined whether an entity
has international personality and, if so, what rights, duties and competencies apply in the
particular case
 One of the distinguishing characteristics of contemporary international law has been the wide
range of participants. These include states, international organisations, regional organisations,
non-government organisations, public companies, private companies and individuals.
 Not all such entities will constitute legal persons, although they may act with some degree of
influence upon the international plane.
 International personality is participation plus some form of community acceptance.
 SUBJECTS OF
INTERNATIONAL LAW
I. States
II. International Public Companies/ International Body Corporate
III. Transnational Corporation
IV. International Organisation
V. Individuals
 STATES – CREATION OF
STATEHOOD
 Montevideo Convention on Rights & Duties of States, 1933
 Article 1: The State, as a person of International Law, should adhere to the following
qualifications-
•Permanent Population:
•Definite Territory:
•Government;
•Capacity to enter into relations with other States.
 Permanent Population Definite Territory
 No specification of a minimum number of  The need for a defined territory focuses on the
inhabitants requirement for a particular territorial base upon
which to operate.
Intention is important
 There is no necessity in international law for
defined and settled boundaries.
 There is a consistent band of territory which
is undeniably controlled by the government of
the alleged state.
 Example: Palestine and Israel
 Government Capacity to enter into relations with
other States
 For a political society to function
The capacity to enter into relations with
reasonably effectively it needs some other states is an aspect of the existence of
form of government or central the entity in question as well as an
control. indication of the importance attached to
More as an indication of some sort recognition by other countries
of coherent political structure and  The essence of capacity is
society, than the necessity for a independence.
sophisticated apparatus of executive  The difference is the presence or absence
and legislative organs. of legal capacity, not the degree of
influence that may affect decisions.
 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 characterised by sovereignty”.
 It was also noted that the form of internal political organization and constitutional provisions
constituted “mere facts”, although it was necessary to take them into account in order to determine
the government's sway over the population and the territory.
 Other factors may be relevant, including self-determination and recognition, while the relative
weight is given to such criteria in particular situations may very well vary.
SELF - DETERMINATION
The principle of self-determination provides
that the people of the colonially defined
territorial unit in question may freely
determine their own political status.
Such determination may result in
independence, integration with a
neighbouring state, free association
with an independent state or any
other political status freely decided
upon by the people concerned.
Self-determination also has a role within
the context of the creation of statehood,
preserving the sovereignty and
independence of states, in providing
criteria for the resolution of disputes,
and in the area of the permanent
sovereignty of states over natural
resources.
Article l(2) of UN Charter notes as one of the organization's
purposes the development of friendly relations among nations
based upon respect for the principle of equal rights and self-
determination, and Article 55 reiterated the phraseology.
 UN General Assembly Resolution 1514 (XV), the Declaration on
the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and
Peoples, adopted in 1960 by eighty-nine votes to none, with
nine abstentions, stressed that:
“all peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that
right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue
their economic, social and cultural development.”
 Inadequacy of political, social, economic or educational preparedness should not
serve as a protest for delaying or denying independence
 Attempts aimed at the partial or total disruption of the national unity and
territorial integrity of a country were deemed incompatible with the concept of
Self-Determination and the UN Charter.
 The International Covenants on Human Rights, 1966 - the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International
Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) AND The1970
Declaration on Principles of International Law Concerning Friendly
Relations :
 “All peoples have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right they
freely determine their political status”, while states “shall promote the realisation
of the right of self-determination and shall respect that right in conformity with
the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations”.
RECOGNITION OF STATES
 Constitutive Theory - The recognition of a body by other
States creates a new State which grants it an international legal
personality.
 Declarative Theory - recognition has no legal effect and is a
mere formality. Statehood exists even prior to recognition and
recognition is only the acknowledgement of that fact. If a body
satisfies the conditions of Statehood, then it is a State with all
rights and duties and has to be treated as a State by other States.
 INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC
COMPANIES/
INTERNATIONAL BODY
CORPORATE
Corporations which:
 Have not been constituted by the exclusive application of one national law;
 Characterised in general by an international agreement providing for cooperation between
governmental and private enterprises
 Whose members and directors represent several national sovereignties;
 Whose legal personality is not based, or at any rate not entirely, on the decision of a national authority
or the application of a national law;
 Whose operations are governed, at least partially, by rules that do not stem from a single or even from
several national laws
 The personality question will depend upon the differences between municipal and international
personality. If the entity is given a range of powers and is distanced sufficiently from municipal law, an
international person may be involved, but it will require careful consideration of the circumstances.
 INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC
COMPANIES/
INTERNATIONAL BODY
CORPORATE - EXAMPLE
 INTELSAT, established in 1973 as an intergovernmental structure for a global commercial
telecommunications satellite system - https://www.intelsat.com/intelsat-history/

 Eurofima, established in 1955 by fourteen European states (now 25) in order to lease equipment to the
railway administrations of those states -
https://www.eurofima.org/about-us/who-we-are/?CFID=18611292&CFTOKEN=8eec2e3997d118a8-82
E896AE-155D-040F-77BA790E2AD3B511

 The Bank of International Settlement, created in 1930 by virtue of a treaty between six states, and
the host country, Switzerland - https://www.bis.org/about/history.htm
 TRANSNATIONAL
CORPORATIONS/
MULTINATIONAL
CORPORATIONS
 The question of the international personality of transnational corporations remains an open one.
 They in essence constitute private business organisations comprising several legal entities linked
together by parent corporations and are distinguished by size and multinational spread.
 In the years following the Barcelona Traction case, an increasing amount of practice has been evident
on the international plane dealing with such corporations. What has been sought is a set of guidelines
governing the major elements of the international conduct of these entities.
 UN Human Rights Council on 6th July 2011 adopted guiding principles on ‘Business and Human
Rights: Implementing the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy” framework.
 However, progress has been slow and several crucial issues remain to be resolved, including the legal
effect, if any, of such guidelines.
 INDIVIDUALS
 Modern practice does demonstrate that individuals have become increasingly recognised as
participants and subjects of international law. This has occurred primarily but not exclusively through
human rights law.
Individuals as a general rule lack standing to assert violations of international treaties in the
absence of a protest by the state of nationality although states may agree to confer particular rights
on individuals which will be enforceable under international law, independently of municipal law.
Under Article 304(b) of the Treaty of Versailles, 1919, for example, nationals of the Allied and
Associated Powers could bring cases against Germany before the Mixed Arbitral Tribunal in their own
names for compensation.
Under international law treaties did not as such create direct rights and obligations for private
individuals, although particular treaties could provide for the adoption of individual rights and
obligations enforceable by the national courts where this was the intention of the contracting parties
- Danzig Railway Officials case (PCIJ)
A wide range of other treaties have provided for individuals to have rights
directly and have enabled individuals to have direct access to international
courts and tribunals. One may mention as examples the European
Convention on Human Rights, 1950; the European Communities treaties,
1957; the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights, 1969; the
Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, 1966; the International Convention for the Elimination of All
Forms of Racial Discrimination, 1965 and the Convention on the
Settlement of Investment Disputes, 1965.
 INDIVIDUAL CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY
 The evolving subject of international individual criminal responsibility marks the coming together of
elements of traditional international law with human rights law, humanitarian law and criminal law.
Crimes against international law are committed by humans, not by abstract entities, and only by
punishing individuals who commit such crimes can the provisions of international law be enforced.
 Charter establishing IMT at Nuremberg and Tokyo
 Genocide is a crime under international law bearing individual criminal responsibility – Affirmed by
UN General Assembly and later by Genocide Convention 1948
 International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid of 1973
declares apartheid to be an international crime involving direct individual criminal responsibility.
 Individual responsibility has also been confirmed with regard to grave breaches of the four 1949
Geneva Red Cross Conventions and 1977 Additional Protocols I and II dealing with armed conflicts.
 International Criminal Tribunal at Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
 Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court.
 INTERNATIONAL
ORGANISATION
 International organisations have played a crucial role in the sphere of international personality.
 In principle it is now well established that international organisations may indeed possess
international legal personality.
 Whether an organisation possesses personality in international law will hinge upon the indicia of
personality:
1. Constitutional status
2. Its actual powers and practice
3. Capacity to enter into relations with states and other organisations and conclude treaties with
them.
 REPARATION FOR INJURIES
SUFFERED IN THE SERVICE
OF THE UNITED NATIONS,
1949 in September 1948, in
 As a consequence of the assassination
Jerusalem, of Count Folke Bernadotte, the United Nations Mediator
in Palestine, and other members of the United Nations Mission to
Palestine, the General Assembly asked the Court:
1. Whether the United Nations had the capacity to bring an
international claim against the State responsible with a view to
obtaining reparation for damage caused to the Organization and to
the victim.
2. In what manner the action taken by the United Nations could
be reconciled with such rights as might be possessed by the State of
which the victim was a national.
 ADVISORY OPINION OF 11
APRIL 1949
 The Court held that the Organization was intended to exercise
functions and rights which could only be explained on the basis of
the possession of a large measure of international personality and
the capacity to operate upon the international plane.
 It followed that the Organization had the capacity to bring a claim
and to give it the character of an international action for reparation
for the damage that had been caused to it. The Court further
declared that the Organization can claim reparation not only in
respect of damage caused to itself, but also in respect of damage
suffered by the victim or persons entitled through him.
 The Organization should be regarded in international law as
possessing the powers which, are conferred upon the Organization
as being essential to the discharge of its functions. The
Organization may require to entrust its agents with important
missions in disturbed parts of the world. In such cases, it is
necessary that the agents should receive suitable support and
protection.
 The Court therefore found that the Organization has the capacity
to claim appropriate reparation, including also reparation for
damage suffered by the victim or by persons entitled through it.
 The risk of possible competition between the Organization and
the victim’s national State could be eliminated either by means of a
general convention or by a particular agreement in any individual
case.
 SPECIAL CASES
 Personality may be acquired by a combination of treaty provisions
and recognition or acquiescence by other international persons.
 The International Committee of the Red Cross, a private
non-governmental organisation subject to Swiss law, was
granted special functions under the 1949 Geneva Red Cross
Conventions and has been accepted as being able to enter into
international agreements under international law with international
persons.
 The Holy See and the Vatican
 National Liberation Movement – Observer status not complete
international personality