The Financial Obligation In International Law

This is the first volume to comprehensively and systematically study, describe, and theorize the financial obligation created and governed by public international law. Legal globalization has given rise to a number of financial issues in international law in areas as diverse as development financing, investment protection, compensation of human rights victims, and sovereign debt crises. The claims resulting from the proliferation of financial activity are not limited to those primarily involving financial obligation (e.g. loans and grants) but include secondary obligation resulting from the law on international responsibility. Among the many instances of financial obligation covered in this study, the reader will find inter-State financial transactions, inter-State sale of goods, transnational services such as telecommunications and post, the financial operations of multilateral institutions, loans, grants and guarantees provided by the various international financial institutions, certain financial relations between non-State actors (including natural persons) and States, intergovernmental organizations or other international legal actors, and government loans to international organizations. Rich in historical detail and systematic in its coverage of contemporary law, this book will be valued by all practitioners and scholars with an interest in the nature of international financial obligation.

Five essays set out the general principles of international law that are applicable to the IFIs and consider how these are or should be evolving to produce IFIs that are respectful subjects of international law and accountable to all relevant stakeholders for their compliance with international law. Six more focus on selected aspects of the IFIs’ operations that both raise important and challenging international legal issues and that have substantial impacts on both the different stakeholders in the operations of the IFIs, and on the sustainability and success of the operations. Introductory and concluding essays frame the volume. The many issues raised include the following: • IFIs’ impact on economic policies in Member States; • IFI operations as private financial transactions; • IFIs as key players in the creation of international law; • IFIs as promoters of the international capitalist system; • IFIs as bearers of human rights obligations under international human rights law or as participants in the UN system; • consequences of an IFI’s breach of its own internal policies or directives; • IFI immunity; • IFI capacity to sue and to be sued in national courts; • ability of various claimants to sue IFIs in domestic courts; • environmental and social rights and interests of third parties affected by IFI financing; • right of indigenous people to give their free, prior, and informed consent to IFI operations that affect them; and • IFIs’ treatment of workers’ rights.

The book is an exposition of 100 of the major cases, which have either created or illustrate well, the legal system as we know it today. The cases have been chosen primarily for illustrating important points of law in a large variety of legal disciplines

This book focuses on the legal challenges and opportunities for International Financial Institutions in the post-crisis world. It includes contributions from academics, practitioners and Bank staff. The contributions cover a broad array of issues, included governance reform and constitutional framework of IFIs, privileges and immunities, responsibility of international organizations, issues related to fragile and conflict-affected states, climate finance, and the recent financial crisis. The book is organized in three main areas, namely (i) Law of International Organizations: Issues Confronting IFIs; (ii) Legal Obligations and Institutions of Developing Countries: Rethinking Approaches of IFIs; and (iii) International Finance and the Challenges of Regulatory Governance.

This book explores the human rights obligations of two of the largest international financial institutions,namely, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Based on international legal methodology, this book addresses these two institutions in public international law, and assesses the extent to which international law provides foundations for obligations in the field of human rights. This book analyses any possible obligations related to the effect of the two institutions own programmes and projects. The core of this analysis is focused on the two institutions international legal personality, and addresses their relationship to international law as legal subjects, rather than as a collectivity of states with international legal personality. Building on the traditional sources of international law, such as customary international law, general principles of international law and treaty law, the book concludes that the two institutions are under an obligation to respect human rights in their operations. This implies that they will break their obligations if they make the human rights situation worse as a result of their programmes or projects. It also concludes that the World Bank and the IMF are not under obligations to promote or fulfil human rights, but that they may legitimately do so if they can do it within their Articles of Agreement (the treaties establishing the institutions). The book also looks at the practical implications of the obligation to respect, which involves both substantial and procedural obligations. These obligations will, even if limited in their scope, imply that the two institutions need to include human rights checks in the planning, implementation and evaluation stages of projects and programmes. The final part of the book looks at redress possibilities in situations where either of the two institutions may be in breach of their human rights obligations.