The International Law of Regional Organizations – Mapping the Issues

Despite their increasing significance, Regional International Organizations (rio s) have, thus far, received scant attention in international legal literature. In order to fill this gap, the International Law Association (ila) Study Group (sg) on The International Law of Regional Organizations was launched in 2021 by the two editors of this special issue. This issue is an academic emanation of the comparative international law project conducted by the ila sg. It serves two main aims: first, present the main results of the ila sg’s comparative international law exercise in an accessible and analytical format in the first contribution of the issue; and, second, gather individual contributions to address further selected conceptual, normative, historical and institutional questions pertaining to the external and internal practice of international law by rio s. The present introduction provides the necessary conceptual and theoretical background to the discussion unfolding in the remainder of the issue. It addresses the topic and scope of this special issue, maps the state of the debate and relevance of the issue, and clarifies the structure and contents of the issue.