The Necessity of Cooperation between International Organizations

It is a pleasure to join you today for the inaugural aiib law lecture. Let us hope this is one of many such events in the years to come. I congratulate you on this initiative. Being together here today can only be of benefit to us all. I look forward to our discussions. I wish to speak during my lecture to an issue that is of importance to each and every one of us, individually, as well as to the institutions and organizations that we serve. That is the necessity of cooperation between international organizations. Let us begin this story like all good stories: in the middle. From there we can see where we have been and speculate as to where we might be going. We live, I think it is fair to say, in an age of international organization. I have chosen that latter word carefully. International organization consists not only of international organizations, properly so-called, and here we might specify “intergovernmental organizations” established pursuant to an international agreement, but also organization more broadly. International organization is the organization of international life. If we were to use the term as it is commonly understood, as opposed to how it might be limited by strict definition—such that it might apply beyond the sphere of cooperation between States—then we could also include within the broad category of international organization other aspects of cooperation between individuals and entities sitting in one place, and other individuals and entities sitting somewhere else, half-way across the world.