Introduction

Usually, the constituent treaties of international organizations control who can join the organization, under what conditions, and following which procedure. Often a distinction is made between original members and those who join later, with the original members (or the founder members) being those states that have expressed their consent to be bound by the Organization's terms before the Organization's constituent instrument entered into force, or before a certain specified date, or perhaps a combination thereof. Thus, Article 3 of the UN Charter provides that original members are those who either took part in the negotiations of the Charter and signed and ratified it, or had previously signed the 1942 Declaration by United Nations and subsequently signed and ratified the Charter. The latter construction was chosen so as to accommodate Poland, which had not been in a position to take part in the negotiations in San Francisco.

The distinction between original members and ‘normal’ members is, however, only rarely of great legal significance. Unless special provisions are made, normally speaking the difference entails certain practical benefits in favour of the original members; perhaps, as has been argued in a slightly different context, in order to compensate for the fact that original members may for quite some time be subjected to obligations such as not to defeat the organization's object and purpose prior to its establishment. Thus, an original member does not have to apply for membership; if admitted to the negotiations, nothing bars a state from becoming a member.