Challenging Acts of International Organizations Before National Courts

As the Kadi-hype following the 2008 European Court of Justice judgment demonstrated, there are many problems associated with the judicial review of acts of international organizations. This book is the first to present a broader overview of how acts of international organizations have been challenged before national courts. It covers such diverse organizations as the United Nations, its subsidiary organs, such as the specialized international criminal courts for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the European Patent Office, the European Schools, EUROCONTROL, OPEC, and INTERPOL. Building extensively on the case law of domestic courts, the chapters highlight reoccurring legal issues in light of four working hypotheses. These relate to the nature of judicial review of the acts of international organizations, its interdependence with domestic methods of incorporating international law, the conditions of a human rights-based review, and the tension between the independent functioning of an organization and guaranteeing legal protection against its acts. This approach ensures consistency among the book's chapters, which each focus on a different organization. Its conclusion brings the different findings together and analyses them in the light of the working hypotheses. It also discusses whether attempts to secure a certain minimum level of legal protection against acts of international organizations through judicial review by national courts may contribute to securing greater accountability of international organizations.

August Reinisch is Professor of International and European Law at the University of Vienna, Austria and Adjunct Professor at the Bologna Center/SAIS of Johns Hopkins University, Italy. He holds Master's degrees in philosophy (1990) and in law (1988) as well as a doctorate in law (1991) from the University of Vienna and an LL.M. (1989) from NYU Law School. He has widely published in international law, with a focus on investment law and the law of international organizations. He currently serves as arbitrator on the In Rem Restitution Panel according to the Austrian General Settlement Fund Law 2001, dealing with Holocaust-related property claims, and as arbitrator and expert in investment cases. He is on the Board of Editors of International Organizations Law Review, Oxford Reports on International Law in Domestic Courts, International Legal Materials and various other journals.