INTERPOL and the responsibility of International Organisations

In its 1949 Advisory Opinion in Reparation for injuries suffered in the service of the United Nations, the International Court of Justice recognised that the United Nations (as an international organisation) is an international person with objective legal personality separate from that of its members. The International Court of Justice recognised that the United Nations is a subject of international law, capable of possessing international rights and duties. INTERPOL’s status as an international organisation is uncontroversial, and it is trite law that the responsibility of INTERPOL may be invoked when it breaches its international obligations. This talk will examine INTERPOL’s understanding of international responsibility and explore the difficulties in holding INTERPOL responsible for its internationally wrongful acts. 

Dr Rutsel S J Martha

Dr Rutsel S J Martha is the founder of Lindeborg Counsellors at Law, a firm specialising in public international law. Dr Martha is also a Partner Fellow on the Lauterpacht Linked Programme at the University of Cambridge’s Lauterpacht Centre for International Law.

Prior to founding Lindeborg, Dr Martha was the General Counsel and Director of Legal Affairs of INTERPOL from 2004 to 2008 and the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development from 2008 to 2013. From 1998 to 2002, he was the Minister of Justice of the Netherlands Antilles and, from 1990 to 1998, a Minister Plenipotentiary to the European Union. He also served as a member of the Legal Department of the International Monetary Fund from 1987 to 1990. Dr Martha has experience handling cases before international courts, arbitral tribunals and international administrative tribunals.

Dr Martha has published extensively, including: The Financial Obligation in International Law (OUP, 2015) (which was cited with approval by the High Court in Law Debenture Trust Corporation PLC v Ukraine [2017] EWHC 655 (Comm)); The Legal Foundations of INTERPOL (Hart Publishing, 2010); “Challenging Acts of INTERPOL in Domestic Courts” in August Reinisch (ed), Challenging Acts of International Organizations Before National Courts (OUP, 2010); The Tax Treatment of International Civil Servants (Martinus Nijhoff, 2010); and The Jurisdiction to Tax in International Law (Kluwer, 1989).

Stephen Bailey

Mr Stephen Bailey is a counsel at Lindeborg Counsellors at Law. In this capacity, Mr Bailey has acted for individuals before the Permanent Court of Arbitration and the United Nations Human Rights Committee, and in investor-State arbitration. Mr Bailey has published work in journals such as the International Criminal Law Review and the European Journal of Human Rights. Prior to joining Lindeborg, Mr Bailey was a lawyer at Davis Polk & Wardwell, and he taught law at the University of Cambridge and the University of Edinburgh.

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Convenors of the Oxford Public International Law Discussion Group are Sachintha Dias Mudalige and Eirini Fasia.

 

The PIL Discussion Group hosts a weekly speaker event and light lunch and is a key focal point for PIL@Oxford. Topics involve contemporary and challenging issues in international law. Speakers include distinguished international law practitioners, academics, and legal advisers from around the world.

 

The group typically meets each Thursday during Oxford terms in The Old Library, All Souls College, with lunch commencing at 12:30. The speaker will commence at 12:45 and speak for about forty minutes, allowing about twenty five minutes for questions and discussion. The meeting should conclude before 2:00. Practitioners, academics and students from within and outside the University of Oxford are all welcome. No RSVP is necessary. Join the PIL Email List to receive information about the PIL Discussion Group meetings, as well as other PIL@Oxford news.

 

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