The Quest for International Legal Status: On Finn Seyersted and the Challenges of Theorizing International Organizations Law

After so many decades since the emergence of international organizations, the question of their international legal status – the terms on which they participate in the international legal system – remains the subject of debate. Among all the scholars that have contributed to this debate, Finn Seyersted stands out for having offered a forward-looking, sophisticated and uncompromising account of what international organizations are under general international law and of what international rights, obligations and capacities they consequently possess. Yet Seyersted is perceived as a left-field scholar with a bee in his bonnet. His work is often name-checked but rarely engaged with properly. This article highlights Seyersted’s invaluable contribution to the theory of international organizations, which has the merit, among others, of having sensed the direction in which international practice was going. It also ponders how Seyersted’s relative lack of success in becoming a more influential scholar can be viewed as a cautionary tale, for there are empirical, conceptual and normative challenges in the quest for international legal status that his work was not able to meet.