There are five Advisory Opinions rendered by the International Court of Justice in cases pertaining to employment relations in international organizations. They were all Opinions requested either by the UN or UNESCO in connection with the operation of the UN Administrative Tribunal (UNAT) and the ILO Administrative Tribunal (ILOAT) respectively. The first Opinion given in 1954 was the result of a general reference by the UN General Assembly and concerned some basic questions regarding the UNAT. The other four were requests for review of decisions given in cases decided by the UNAT and the ILOAT in disputes between staff members and their organizations.

In the Effect of Awards case the General Assembly of the UN requested, under its general power to request Opinions, an Opinion on matters of law relating to the work of the General Assembly. The Opinion embodies rulings on some very important issues of law relating to employment relations and also discussed some general questions relating to that relationship.

In international organizations an executive or deliberative organ may initially rule on an employment dispute. There is generally no constitutional provision authorizing such a person or organ to settle the dispute. Nevertheless, such administrative settlement has been the prevailing procedure, in general at least for preliminary purposes, in all international organizations. Thus there can be no serious doubt that the executive or deliberative organs of the organization are entitled to decide these internal disputes themselves as, indeed, executive organs do in national states.