The WHO and SARS: The Challenge of Innovative Responses to Global Health Security - Innovation in Global Health Governance - page 77

4 with the exception of cortell and Peterson's claim that a second episode of agency slack
occurred when the wHo criticised china, the terms 'agency slack' and 'independent
power' are otherwise so alike in content and analysis that for the purposes of this chapter
they have been taken to be synonymous.
5 this general principle of international institutional law originally arose from the 1945
San Francisco conference establishing the United nations. However, it has also since
been endorsed by the International court of Justice (IcJ) in the Certain Expenses of the
United Nations case, which concluded that 'each organ [of the UN] must, in the first place
at least, determine its own jurisdiction' (Jennings 1962, 1177). although in one sense this
principle elevates the organs of an Io above that of its member states, it nevertheless has
become widely accepted due to the fact that the Io organs are charged with executing
the organisation's delegated duties, and therefore, the organs are deemed to be the most
competent authority to interpret the charter (see Alvarez 2005, 80).
6 Interview with David Heymann, 15 november 2005, wHo, Geneva. this view was also
supported Senior WHO Official A, 18 November 2005, WHO legal department, Geneva.
7 this default position is made even stronger whenever an Io explicitly asserts that its
actions were taken in the fulfilment of its mandate (akande 2003, 285-296; Shaw 2003,
1196; Schermers and blokker 2003, 154, 163).
8 Interview with WHO Oficial B, 18 November 2005, WHO, Geneva.
9 Interview with Heymann.
10 Interview with Heymann.
11 Interview with Senior WHO Oficial A.
12 Interview with Senior WHO Oficial A.
13 email correspondence with Gro Harlem brundtland, 13 april 2006.
14 Interview with Heymann.
15 Interview with bill Kean, wHo Director of Governance, 15 november 2005, wHo,
Geneva.
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