6 Responsibility, 6.2 Arab Organization for Industrialization and others v Westland Helicopters Ltd, Swiss Federal Supreme Court (First Civil Court), 19 July 1988, 80 ILR 652 »
Christiane Ahlborn
From: Judicial Decisions on the Law of International Organizations
Edited By: Cedric Ryngaert, Ige F Dekker, Ramses A Wessel, Jan Wouters
This chapter discusses the decision of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court in Westland Helicopters. It forms part of an appeal brought by the Arab Republic of Egypt (ARE) against an earlier arbitral award against the ARE and other respondents. The Tribunal had held that AOI member states, including the ARE, had agreed to arbitration by virtue of the AOI constitution. The Swiss Federal Supreme Court partly reversed this award by upholding the separate legal personality of the AOI. As a result, AOI member states, in particular the appealing ARE, could not be subjected to international arbitration. The Swiss Federal Supreme Court thus set the stage for the contemporary view on the question of the responsibility of member states of international organizations: due to the separate legal personality of an international organization, its member states cannot be held responsible for acts of the organization by virtue of their membership alone.
6 Responsibility, 6.1 Westland Helicopters Ltd v Arab Organization for Industrialization, United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, State of Qatar, Arab Republic of Egypt, and Arab British Helicopter Company, Arbitration, 5 March 1984, 80 ILR 600 »
Christiane Ahlborn
From: Judicial Decisions on the Law of International Organizations
Edited By: Cedric Ryngaert, Ige F Dekker, Ramses A Wessel, Jan Wouters
This chapter treats the arbitration between Westland Helicopters Ltd and the Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI) as well as its member states. After several AOI member states decided to dissolve the organization in 1979, Westland Helicopters Ltd filed a request for arbitration before the International Chamber of Commerce, claiming damages for non-fulfilment of contractual obligations. The Westland Helicopters arbitration is the first case in which a dispute settlement body had to decide on the possible responsibility of states for the wrongful acts of an international organization. While the Arbitral Tribunal in Westland Helicopters decided to hold AOI member states responsible alongside the international organization, Swiss courts later reversed this decision. The Westland Helicopters cases thus foreshadowed the debate, including many of the recurrent arguments, on whether and when the corporate veil of an international organization should be pierced.
