Introduction

Summary

Under classical international law, the domestic and the international legal orders are portrayed as separate legal orders. International law is conceived as a body of law applicable to various subjects of international law, while municipal law is regarded as the law which applies within a state and between the citizens and institutions of that entity. This strict separation is blurred in the context of international territorial administration. Transitional administrations operate at the edge of the traditional law of international organisations and domestic law. They may be subject to two legal orders when administering territories: the internal legal order of the international legal person or entity which created them and the domestic legal order of the administered territory.

This particularity poses a number of conceptual challenges for international law. Four issues merit special attention in this regard: the legal status of the administered territory, the status of international entities as administering powers, the nature and scope of international lawmaking and the obligations of the administering powers vis-à-vis the people of the territory.