Article on Intergovernmental Trusts in International Law

Ilias Bantekas published an Article entitled, The Emergence of the Intergovernmental Trust in International Law, Brit. Yearbook of Int’l L. (2011). Provided below is an abstract of the Article:

Intergovernmental trust funds are vehicles set up mainly to advance develop- mental objectives. They are composed of capital contributed largely by states. The management of the capital and the objectives of the trust are assigned to a trustee, usually an international organization, such as the UN or the World Bank. The practice of the trusts surveyed in this article unequivocally suggests that the intention of the two principal parties to the trust relationship (i.e. donor and trustee) is to transfer ownership of the trust’s assets to the trustee. The latter’s responsibility is restricted to investing and distributing the trust’s assets to the identified beneficiaries. The understanding is that neither the donors nor the trustee is liable against third parties in respect of any unlawful act committed in connection to the donation or the disbursement of funds. The absolute char- acter of this extra-contractual limitation is dismissed in this article, given that despite the charitable or benevolent nature of the trust’s aims, the disbursement of funds under certain circumstances may be injurious to the interests of states or the international community.

Special thanks to Stacie Strong (Professor of Law, University of Missouri) for bringing this article to my attention.