Бакалавриат
2026/2027
Право международных организаций
Статус:
Курс по выбору (Юриспруденция)
Кто читает:
Департамент международного права
Где читается:
Факультет права
Когда читается:
4-й курс, 3 модуль
Охват аудитории:
для своего кампуса
Язык:
английский
Кредиты:
3
Контактные часы:
32
Course Syllabus
Abstract
International organizations are increasingly important to global and regional politics. The course “International Organizations Law” provides students with a comprehensive understanding of the legal foundations, key concepts, general institutional design, and functioning of such entities in the contemporary international environment. With a mix of legal, empirical, and theoretical approaches, it examines the origins and development of international organizations, their legal personality, membership, competence, and institutional structure; the law-making powers of international organizations; their privileges and immunities; employment relations; and accountability and responsibility. The learning process combines doctrinal analysis with consideration of relevant modern trends, internal relations, and selected practical illustrations for major global and regional organizations. Special attention is given to the legal framework and practice of the United Nations and the Eurasian integration organizations.
The course is designed to help students understand how international organizations operate within the broader framework of public international law, what the nature of their legal systems is, and how their mechanisms and internal procedures affect states, individuals, and international cooperation in general, including inter-institutional engagement.
To reinforce the material, students have studied, the course includes, at its final stage, model negotiations on a draft charter of a new international organization. Therefore, students will have the opportunity to apply the knowledge they have acquired in specific topics of international organizations law.
Learning Objectives
- Provide students with an in-depth understanding of the main concepts, sources, and principles of the law of international organizations.
- Develop ability to analyze the legal personality, powers, structure, and functioning of international organizations in theory and practice.
- Familiarize students with legal frameworks governing membership, decision-making, treaty-making, privileges and immunities, employment relations, and responsibility of international organizations, with special attention to their institutional and diplomatic practice.
- Develop skills in working with treaties, internal rules, procedures, case law, and scholarly writings related to international organizations.
- Prepare students for practical legal analysis and problem-solving regarding the functioning of international organizations, including through model negotiations and simulation exercises.
Expected Learning Outcomes
- Students must gain knowledge of the following topics: historical development, definition, classification, and role of international organizations in modern international relations and international law; legal personality of international organizations under international and domestic law, their establishment and dissolution.
- Students must gain knowledge of the following topics: key doctrines regarding the powers (competence) of international organizations; membership, observer status, state succession, and representation, including practical diplomatic dimensions and specific examples; the institutional structure of international organizations, decision-making procedures, and financing.
- Students must gain knowledge of the following topics: law-making by international organizations, treaty-making powers, internal legal instruments, and the legal framework of the 1986 Vienna Convention; privileges and immunities of international organizations, including their application in domestic legal orders and relevant case law; international civil service and employment; responsibility of international organizations, including the 2011 Draft Articles and relevant case law.
- Skills in legal research, analysis of statutory treaties and internal rules of international organizations, judicial practice, and doctrinal sources; ability to use appropriate legal terminology and apply doctrinal concepts to practical situations involving international organizations; skills in analyzing legal challenges, formulating well-grounded legal positions, and participating effectively in negotiations and simulation exercises.
- Skills to design and negotiate the legal and institutional framework of a new international organization in a model inter-State setting, taking into account both legal and practical considerations; ability to search, analyze and work with relevant information using systematic, comparative and other specific methods.
Course Contents
- Topic 1. Introduction to International Organizations Law
- Topic 2. Legal personality of international organizations
- Topic 3. Membership
- Topic 4. Institutional structure
- Topic 5. Competence (powers) of international organizations
- Topic 6. Privileges and immunities
- Topic 7. International civil service
- Topic 8. Responsibility
- Topic 9. Model negotiations: charter of a new international organization:
Assessment Elements
- Classroom-based workAttendance, presentations during lectures and seminars, and involvement in the discussions. Students are required to do their own research using the library and electronic resources. Classes will be, as a general rule, structured as participative workshops in order to stimulate discussion. Students are expected to read the materials indicated by the lecturer prior to each class.
- ModelForm of the Model: Negotiations on the establishment of a new international organization (team work).
- ExamForm of the exam: oral in the form of an interview on the whole syllabus (held in small groups).
