About Collective & Unilateral Measures by and against International Organizations
Within the research project coordinated by Professors Giovanna Adinolfi, Alessandra Lang and Chiara Ragni, the Department of International, Legal, Historical and Political Studies of the University of Milan organizes a Conference on “Collective and Unilateral Measures by and against International Organizations”. The Conference will take place on 16th June 2022 and will adopt a hybrid format, taking place both in person at the University of Milan and virtually through an online platform. 
Main Issues & Questions
The aim of the Conference is to stimulate a reflection on a topical and controversial issue, which reflects a trend towards a growing instability in the relations among States and International Organizations (IOs). 
 The increasing use of sanctions, countermeasures or unfriendly behaviors in relations between States and IOs reflects both the cause and the effect of these tensions. According to the practice, a distinction may be traced between:
  1. the measures taken by States against the IOs. In this regard it is possible to distinguish: measures adopted by IOs’ member States, that can consist in the suspension of periodic payments (e.g. the decision adopted by Russia in respect of the CoE), or in the withdrawal from the Organization (e.g. Brexit); and measures adopted by third countries as a reaction to the policies of IOs, that may impact on their political and economic interests (e.g. the Visa Restrictions imposed by the United States against the Prosecutor and other officials of the International Criminal Court as a reaction to the opening of an investigation on the crimes committed in the Palestinian territory); 
  2. the measures taken by the IOs against States. In this context it is worth taking into consideration: on the hand, collective sanctions, either under the terms or outside the scope of the IO’s statute, by which members are deprived of the rights and privileges deriving from the membership (e.g. suspension of membership or suspension of voting rights); on the other hand, the measures adopted as a reaction to the violation by third countries of international collective obligations (e.g. individual restrictive measures recently adopted by the EU, in accordance with its global human rights sanctions regime, against foreign public officials).
Against this backdrop, the questions that arise and that will be the object of the first session of the Conference are: 
  1. What are the legal grounds under which the measures taken by both the States and the IOs may be justified? Are they grounded on the law of the IOs or are they rather justified under customary international law?
  2. In the latter case, what is the legal framework? Do the above measures fall into the scope of general rules on international responsibility of either States or international organizations? Does the practice reflect a new trend of international law or may it be regarded as an element that contributes to the strengthening of existing international rules? 
  3. Are IOs entitled to react against the violation of collective obligations by States or do they act on behalf of their member States? 
The second and the third sessions will address the proposed questions in the light of the practice of the IOs and will be respectively devoted to: - regional organizations, with specific regard to the EU; - universal organizations. 
 Instructions for Submission
The organizers of the Conference encourage the submission of proposals for a short presentation on a specific aspect of the above-described practice. 
 Two abstracts will be selected for the second and the third session. Abstracts should not exceed 500 words and should be submitted by 31st March 2022 by sending an email to confstateios@gmail.com.
The following information must be enclosed to the proposal:
  • The session (second/third) for which the paper should be considered (one session only)
  • The author’s name and affiliation 
  • The author’s CV, including a list of relevant publications (max 800 words)
  • The author’s contact details, including email address and phone number. 
  •  All contributions should be in English. 
  •  Authors of selected abstracts will be notified by 30 April 2022

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