ABSTRACT
Many textbooks on international law describe the formal and legal role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other non-state actors (NSAs) as limited, or do not discuss NGOs in legal terms at all (Cassese 2005: 3–4, 71–2, Brownlie 2003: 56–7, Harris 2004: 12, 141–2, Shaw 2008: 261). The ways of addressing the topic of NSAs among international lawyers are, however, varied and range from dividing actors into categories such as ‘subjects’, ‘objects’ and sometimes ‘secondary subjects’ of international law, to the view that all actors, states and NSAs alike, are ‘participants’ (Higgins 1995: 49). These diverse views are usually rooted in different theories about the nature of international law and its development.
