International Institutions
Documents that lay out the founding principles and working mechanisms of international institutions that play an important role in global issues, sorted alphabetically. Links to the websites of various institutions are in the Internet Sites section.
Written shortly after the conclusion of the Second World War, the UN Charter enshrines the ideals of peace, freedom, and equality, and the principles that govern relations between states. In today's context there are two crucial issues: (i) the concept of sovereignty expressed in the Charter is under challenge from the Bush Doctrine of Pre-emption and from the idea of the “humanitarian war”; and (ii) the distribution of power in the UN still reflects the immediate post-WW2 political situation, which is irrelevant today. The legal texts of WTO agreements about a number of trade issues, from agriculture to intellectual property. These documents provide the framework for discussion of trade-related issues. The text of the agreement that created the World Trade Organization as the successor of GATT. Instructive about the purpose of the WTO. |
