Wilfred Jenks Lecture Series
Guy Fiti Sinclair: The law of inter-organizational relations, a view from the ILO
This lecture focusses on the question of relations between international organizations (IOs), or inter-organizational relations, and in particular the role of law in regulating or shaping those relations. The overall goal of the lecture is to argue that an analysis of inter-organizational relations is crucial to understanding how IOs change and adapt, as well as understanding how the international legal order as a whole evolves over time.
16 January 2026
About Guy Fiti Sinclair
Guy Fiti Sinclair is a Professor of Law and the Associate Dean Pacific at Auckland Law School, the University of Auckland. He publishes and lectures widely on a range of interests in public international law, including the law of international organizations, international economic law, and law and governance. His first book, To Reform the World: International Organizations and the Making of Modern States (Oxford University Press, 2017), was awarded the European Society of International Law Book Prize in 2018. He is currently pursuing two major research projects: the first is an historical and theoretical account of the interactions of international organizations in the making of international economic law; and the second, supported by a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship from Te Apārangi | Royal Society of New Zealand, explores regional mechanisms and dynamics of international legal ordering in Oceania.
Selected bibliography and documents
- Rafael Biermann and Joachim A. Koops (eds), The Palgrave Handbook of Inter-Organizational Relations in World Politics (Palgrave, 2017)
- Laurence Boisson de Chazournes, Interactions Between Regional and Universal Organizations: A Legal Perspective (Brill | Nijhoff, 2020)
- Henner Gött, The Law of Interactions Between International Organizations: A Framework for Multi-Institutional Labour Governance (Springer, 2020)
- C. Wilfred Jenks, ‘Co-ordination: A New Problem of International Organization – A Preliminary Survey of the Law and Practice of Inter-Organisational Relationships’ (1950) 77 Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law – Recueil des cours 157
- C. Wilfred Jenks, ‘Co-ordination in International Organization: An Introductory Survey’ (1951) 28 British Year Book of International Law 29
- C. Wilfred Jenks, ‘Some Constitutional Problems of International Organizations’ (1945) 22 British Year Book of International Law 11
- Guy Fiti Sinclair, “International Organisations during the Cold War: Reconsidering Institutional Rivalries”, in Matt Craven, Sundhya Pahuja, and Gerry Simpson (eds), Cambridge History of International Law, Volume XI: International Law during the Cold War (1945-1990) (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming)
- Guy Fiti Sinclair, To Reform the World: International Organizations and the Making of Modern States (Oxford University Press, 2017)
- Rene Urueña, ‘Interaction between International Organizations’ in Jan Klabbers (ed), Cambridge Companion to International Organizations Law (Cambridge University Press, 2022) ch 10
Disclaimer
The Wilfred Jenks Lecture Series is an academic initiative organized by the Office of the Legal Adviser. The views expressed in the lectures and any accompanying material are those of the lecturers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the International Labour Office, the International Labour Organization, or its tripartite constituents.Wilfred Jenks Lecture Series
The Wilfred Jenks Lecture Series is an initiative of the Office of the Legal Adviser of the ILO aimed at sparking academic reflection, disseminating knowledge and raising awareness about the ILO’s mandate and its legal and normative work.