Responsibility of International Organizations 'In Connection with Acts of States'

This article discusses the way in which the ILC Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations (ARIO) have addressed the responsibility of international organizations for conduct of member States implementing their normative acts. The ILC has chosen to deal with this issue through the concept of responsibility 'in connection with’ acts of States, which it had already included in its Articles on State Responsibility (ASR). Focusing primarily on article 17 ('circumvention'), we argue that the attempt to address this particular type of responsibility has forced the ILC to relax the conceptual straightjackets it had opted for in the ASR, and has exposed ambiguities in the foundations of the law of international responsibility.