ABSTRACT

Today the legal personality of international organizations in international and most domestic law is beyond doubt. Third parties must deal with an international organization as outsiders who are not privy to its inner workings. The special character of the International Tin Council as an international commodity association must not be overlooked. International commodity associations are organizations of producers and consumers of some basic international commodity. The defects in the regulation of the relations between international organizations and third parties have been starkly exposed by the financial collapse of the ITC in 1985. The strategy of the third party creditors seems to have recognized that a finding of legal liability against the organization must precede a finding of liability against the member States. The ITC (Immunities and Privileges) Order of 1972 implemented Article 16 of the Sixth International Tin Agreement and Article 8(1) of the Headquarters Agreement.