Introduction

The constituent documents of international organizations are strange creatures, often said to occupy a special place in international law. On the one hand, they are treaties, concluded between duly authorized representatives of states, and as such no different from other treaties. Thus, one would expect, they are simply subject to the general law of treaties.

Yet, such constituent documents are not ordinary treaties: they establish an international organization, and, for that reason, most authors appear inclined to grant those treaties a separate status, from which follows the applicability of some special rules, or, in the reverse, the argument that in some circumstances different rules apply to treaties establishing international organizations may lead to the conclusion that therefore, these instruments occupy a special place. As Zacklin once put it, constituent treaties have an ‘organic-constitutive element’ which distinguishes them from other multilateral treaties and influences their working.

As a theoretical matter, the claim that constituent documents are somehow different from other treaties has yet to find serious elaboration and substantiation; authors usually limit themselves to sketching in what respects organizational charters differ in practice from other treaties. Thus, for some, an important difference is that constituent documents are usually concluded for an indefinite period; may only be amended or terminated with the help of the organization's pertinent organs; and are often interpreted in light of the organization's goals.