Subjects of International Law: States, IOs and Individuals

A subject of international law is an entity capable of possessing international rights and duties and of maintaining its rights by bringing international claims. For centuries, only states qualified. Today, international organisations, individuals and some other entities also hold rights or duties, though to differing extents. This note explains international legal personality and each category of subject.

1. International Legal Personality

• Meaning. The capacity to have rights and obligations under international law, to bring claims and to be held responsible.
• Degrees of personality. In Reparation for Injuries (1949), the ICJ observed that the subjects of law in any legal system are not necessarily identical in their nature or in the extent of their rights, and their nature depends on the needs of the community.
• Subjects and objects. Objects, such as territory, ships or, in the older view, individuals, are things regulated by international law without themselves holding rights and duties.

Figure 1: Categories of subjects

2. States

• Primary subjects. States have full and original personality: they can make treaties, bring claims, exchange envoys and are bound by general international law.
• Criteria. Statehood rests on a permanent population, defined territory, government and capacity to enter into relations with other states (Topic 19)

3. International Organisations

• Reparation for Injuries suffered in the Service of the United Nations, 1949. After the assassination of the UN mediator Count Bernadotte in 1948, the Court advised that the UN has international personality, implied from its functions and the Charter, and can bring a claim for injury to itself and to its agents, even against a non-member state, since fifty states representing the vast majority of the international community could create an entity with objective personality.
• Derived and functional. An organisation's personality is created by states and limited to what is needed for its functions.
• Principle of speciality. In Legality of the Use by a State of Nuclear Weapons in Armed Conflict (1996), the Court declined to give an opinion requested by the WHO, because the question fell outside the WHO's functions.

4. Individuals

• Theories. Positivists treated individuals as objects, reached only through their states; realists such as Kelsen, and writers such as Lauterpacht, saw individuals as the ultimate subjects of all law; the modern view treats individuals as limited subjects.
• Danzig Railway Officials, PCIJ, 1928. A treaty may confer rights directly on individuals, enforceable in national courts, if the parties so intend.
• LaGrand (Germany v USA), 2001. Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations creates individual rights for foreign nationals who are detained.

Figure 2: Rights and duties of individuals

5. Other Entities

• Insurgents and belligerents. May acquire limited personality, particularly under the law of armed conflict (Topic 21)
• National liberation movements. Bodies such as the Palestine Liberation Organization received observer status at the UN from 1974; Palestine became a non-member observer state in 2012.
• Holy See. Has long been treated as an international person, makes concordats and sends envoys; the Vatican City State was recognised under the Lateran Treaty, 1929.
• Sovereign Order of Malta. Maintains diplomatic relations with many states despite having no territory.
• International Committee of the Red Cross. A private Swiss association given functions under the Geneva Conventions, with limited personality.
• Corporations and NGOs. Multinational corporations can bring investment claims and conclude contracts with states but are not general subjects; NGOs may have consultative status with ECOSOC under Article 71 of the Charter.

6. Frequently Asked Questions

Is the United Nations a subject of international law?

Yes. In Reparation for Injuries (1949), the ICJ held that the UN has international personality and can bring international claims, though it is not a state and its rights and duties depend on its purposes and functions.

Are individuals subjects of international law?

To a limited extent. They hold rights under human rights and other treaties, can in some systems petition international bodies, and bear direct criminal responsibility for international crimes.

7. Related Topics

• Topic 19: Statehood. The Montevideo criteria.
• Topic 23: Legal Personality of International Organisations. Reparation for Injuries in detail.
• Topic 54: International Criminal Law. Individual criminal responsibility.