A European Law of International Responsibility? The Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations and the European Union

The first section of this paper will briefly describe the plea made by the European Union for recognition of special rules of responsibility for regional economic integration organizations, with an emphasis on rules on attribution (Part 1). The paper will then critically evaluate this claim and the way it was addressed by the ILC in its work on the Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations (Part 2). Arguing that the Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations leave enough room for the development of rules of international responsibility specific to regional economic integration organizations, the paper will then evaluate the possible source for such special rules and gauge the value of EU law for the sake of the lex specialis principle (Part 3). The paper will finally turn to the draft agreement on the accession of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and will reflect on the extent to which the mechanism set up on that occasion could be conducive to the emergence of special rules of international responsibility for the EU (Part 4).