The Issue Of Jurisdictional Immunity Of International Organizations

Facing the problems of relief for private parties during international organizations external activities,the judicial decisions made by international and domestic courts reflect that the near-absolute immunity enjoyed by international organizations has trasfomed into conditional immunity based on the principle of the rule of law,protection of human rights,and on the condition of effective alternative dispute mechanism.It has become a prominent practical and legal issue to balance the functional immunity based on guaranteeing the independent operation of international organizations and safeguarding the legitimate rights of the damaged private privaties by adopting effective accountability mechanisms.This thesis approaches the questions of the jurisdictional immunities of international organizations as the means whereby international organizations can be accommodated within the systems of international law.The range of doctrinal approaches to these question is considered.The thesis seeks to demonstrate individuated approach empirically by mapping the extensive range of international practice,i.e.treaty provisions,decisions of international and domesitccourts and tribunals.At the level of national law,a comparative international law approach is adopted by micro-compare legislative practice of various States and the decisions of their courts on understanding and interpretation of jurisdictional immunity of international organizations.Besides,through further investigating the internal accountability mechanisms of international organizations,it provides possible ways of legal relief for private parties.Finally,combined with an analysis of non-traditional international organizations and critical review of relevant doctrines,the thesis concludes some suggestions and inspiration for improving the efficiency of nternational organizations on jurisdictional immunity issue.This thesis concludes that there are primarily three aspects to this process of accommodation of international organizations in the system of international law: Firstly,there is a functional aspect,which concerns the degree to which national authorities may exercise jurisdiction over the relations of international organizations with third parties.The jurisdictional immunity enjoyed by international organizations is not absolute,and the scope of jurisdictional immunity enjoyed by different international organizations should be specifically distinguished on the the principle of “functional necessity”.It is necessary for member states of international organizations to expressly regulate international organizations through domestic legislation,to link the international law with its domestic application.Secondly,the structural balance presented on the issue of immunity of international organizations is not only the relationship between their member states and the organization.It is also necessary to ensure the balance between the independence of international organizations and legitimacy of its external activities.In order to coordinate the jurisdictional immunity of international organizations and guaranteeing the legitimate rights of damaged private parties,the basic principles of the rule of law and the protection of human rights should be upheld in legislative and judicial practice,and necessary responses should be made to the wrongdoings of international organizations.Meanwhile,the choice of domestic courts to adjudicate these disputes will also likely lead to fragmentation of judicial decisions.But this way of “misappropriating” jurisdiction by domestic courts may push international organizations improve the efficiency of its internal accountability mechanism.Finally,jurisidcitional immunity of international organizations reflect the faces of international law as a whole.International law presents original and fluid attributes which are more prominent than national law,and the realistic perspective of international law is also reflected on the jurisdictional immunity of international organizations.