1 Legal Status (Personality), 1.6 Application of the Interim Accord of 13 September 1995 (The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia v Greece), Judgment, [2011] ICJ Rep 644

Subject(s):

Judges — Membership of international organizations — International organizations, practice and procedure — Responsibility of international organizations — Judgments

The present case addresses the responsibility of states for their own conduct performed in the framework of international organizations. The matter at stake concerned the responsibility of Greece for its objection to FYROM’s candidacy for membership in NATO, which eventually led to latter’s decision to refuse FYROM’s admission. Contrary to Greece’s contention that the decision had been taken by NATO as a whole, and that it was thus solely attributable to it, the ICJ lifted the institutional veil and rather concentrated on the legality of the individual conduct of Greece. In this decision, the Court confirmed that member state participation in institutional decision-making processes can, in its own right, constitute legally relevant conduct against which state compliance with earlier international law obligations may be judged.