NGOsv: legitimate subjects of international law

Abstract

The manuscript studies NGOs in international law. For that purpose, NGOs were appraised under each of the sources of international law, which, according to authoritative legal doctrine, were listed in article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice. The thesis also addresses the challenges to the legitimacy of States and Intergovernmental Organizations in an era in which electoral democracies constitute the predominant form of government. The research has identified that international law is changing to accommodate new subjects of law that were not conceivable under positivism. The author argues that NGOs are subjects of law to the same extent that Intergovernmental Organizations are, because both are created by subjects of international law (States and individuals) under a typical principal-agent relationship as rational-legal bodies entrusted with certain functions, which, with the attendant duties and responsibilities, were clothed by its constituencies __with the competence required to enable those functions to be effectively discharged__.