Constructing the Powers of International Institutions

Viljam Engström, Ph.D. (2009) in International Law, Åbo Akademi University, is University Teacher of Constitutional Law and International Law at Åbo Akademi University. Recent publications include articles such as: Powers of Organizations and the Many Faces of Autonomy (in Collins and White, Routledge, 2010), and How to Tame the Elusive: Lessons from the Revision of the EU Flexibility Clause (in IOLR 2010).

All those with an interest in international institutions and international institutional law, academic institutions and libraries.

1. Introducing the Question of Powers
1.1 An Evergreen or Ignored Subject?; 1.2 ‘A Power’ vis-à-vis ‘Power’; 1.3 Who Can Possess Powers?; 1.4 Struggling to Define Powers; 1.5 The Aim of the Book;
2. Powers as a Way of Imaging Organizations
2.1 The Idea of Attributed Powers; 2.2 The Idea of Implied Powers; 2.3 Shifting Ideologies and the Interpretation of Powers;
3. Powers - A Debate Between Familiar Adversaries
3.1 Powers as A Manifestation of Autonomy; 3.2 Tracing Member Preferences; 3.3 A Dual Image of Organizations;
4. On the Inherent Ambiguity of Powers Claims
4.1 The Elusiveness of Implied Powers; 4.2 The Attributed Character of all Powers; 4.3 On the Use(lessness) of the Attributed and Implied Powers Doctrines;
5. Structuring the Question of Powers
5.1 Looking for Guidance in the Constituent Instrument; 5.2 Looking for Guidance in Principles of Interpretation; 5.3 Changing the Framework of Debate; 5.4 The Promise of Constitutionalism;
6. Constitutionalism as a Framework for Debating Powers
6.1 On the Nature of Constitutional Claims; 6.2 Formal Constitutionalism as Empowerment and Restraint; 6.3 Substantive Constitutionalism as Empowerment and Restraint; 6.4 Speaking Constitutionalism;
7. Concluding Remarks