Statehood and International Organization: Rethinking Their Conceptual Relationship with Reference to Customary International Law

Abstract This article revisits the relationship between the concepts of statehood and international organization with reference to fundamental questions of customary international law. I argue that standard theories of international organizations often rest on a simplified and somewhat superficial anthropomorphic understanding of statehood. This familiar understanding heavily draws on analogies between the state and the natural person of domestic law. In this context, the state appears as a ‘real’ or ‘born’ subject, whereas international organizations are thought of as ‘artificial’ and ‘created’. In this article, I advance an alternative account that traces conceptual continuities between statehood and international organizations, suggesting a pluralist legal ontology for international law. I then utilize this ontology to rethink old doctrinal puzzles in relation to international organizations, zeroing in on problems of objective legal status as well as the application and formation of customary international law.