International organisations are inherently purposive actors within the international legal system, created and empowered by States to pursue finite common objectives. This teleological dimension has come to play a prominent role in the way in which international law rationalises international organisations, with their purposes given a significant, often determinative, role in delimiting their competences. This article argues that this is the product of a conscious shift in legal reasoning that took place in the aftermath of World War II. Through an analysis of a series of key post-War decisions, it identifies the common features of this ‘teleological turn’ and, disentangling it from other forms of legal reasoning, examines its unique underlying logic and normative claims. It demonstrates that while the teleological turn offers prospects for the systemic development of international governance, an increasingly abstract approach to the concept and identification of an organisation's ‘purpose’ raises a number of unresolved questions which cast a shadow of indeterminacy over the law of international organisations.

中文翻译：

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国际组织法的目的论转向

国际组织在国际法律体系中本质上是有目的的行为者，由国家创建和授权以追求有限的共同目标。这种目的论维度在国际法使国际组织合理化的方式中发挥了重要作用，它们的目的在界定其能力方面发挥了重要的、通常是决定性的作用。本文认为，这是二战后法律推理有意识转变的产物。通过对战后一系列关键决定的分析，它确定了这种“目的论转向”的共同特征，并将其与其他形式的法律推理分开，检查其独特的潜在逻辑和规范性主张。