Informal Intergovernmental Organizations

Abstract In “The Love for International Organizations”, Jean d’Aspremont identifies nine features of formal inter-governmental organizations that make them appealing to lawyers. This article focuses on three of those features – power, expertise, background knowledge – asking whether and in what ways they apply to so-called informal inter-governmental organizations, such as the G7, G20 and brics . These three attributes were chosen because they shed light on the comparative advantages and disadvantages of informal international organizations vis-à-vis formal ones. The article does not seek to generalise about which type of organization is better, but rather argues that where an organization falls on the spectrum of formality tells us something about how power is exercised, the impact of expertise on global public policy decision-making, and the importance of ‘like-mindedness’ among members of an international organization.