현재 외교통상부는 녹색기후기금(GCF)와 대한민국 정부 간의 본부협정 체결을 준비하고 있는데, 두 가지 법적 문제가 제기되고 있다. 하나는 국제기구의 국제법상 법인격과 본부협정 체결능력과의 관계이고, 다른 하나는 국내 법률의 제정이 필요한가 여부이다. 특히 후자와 관련하여서는 녹색기후기금은 물론 글로벌녹색성장연구소와 향후 유치할 국제기구까지 종합적으로 대응하기 위하여 가칭 “국제기구법”이라는 일반법을 제정해야 할 필요성이 제기되고 있다. 이 글에서는 대한민국 정부가 녹색기후기금과의 본부협정 체결을 준비하는 과정에서 제기된 네 가지 법적 논점 (① 유엔기후변화협약 당사국 총회 결정의 법적 성격, ② 법적 구속력이 없는 문서에 의한 국제기구 설립이 가능한지 여부, ③ 국제법인격의 취득시기와 ④ 국제법상 법인격과 본부협정 체결능력과의 관계)에 관한 해답을 제시하였다. 그리고 ① 해외사례, ② 국제법인격과 국내법인격의 관계, ③ 국제기구의 다양한 유형과 ④ 본부협정의 발효가 늦어지면서 나타나는 법적 공백의 문제, 그리고 ⑤ 국제기구의 비회원국 내에서의 국내법적 지위 문제와 같은 다각적인 측면에서 볼 때, 국제기구에 관한 일반법의 제정이 필요하다는 제언을 하였다.
The Korean government was committed to hosting the Secretariat of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to spread the vision of green growth as an international asset. In this article, I will analyze the legal issues related to concluding a headquarter agreement with the GCF and the necessity of making the International Organizations Law, or a domestic law that would determine the legal status of an international entity within the domestic legal sphere. In order to do so, I will examine the international law for the legal status of an international organization, and draw upon a precedent of establishing an international organization. The legal status of international organizations under international law provides such organizations with rights, privileges, obligations, and authority for the execution of its activities. The legal status of an international organization is a different concept from the legal status of its member States. The status of an international organization is essentially related to its functional characteristics. In other words, an international organization can exercise the rights, privileges, obligations, and authority given to it explicitly or implicitly by member States. Generally, an international organization has the international juridical or legal personality, the legal capacity and the privileges and immunities (P & I). The constitutive instrument on which the GCF`s establishment is based, is the decision of the 2011 Conference of Parties (COP17) of the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC), which is a non-binding recommendation. In order to establish an international organization from the COP decision without an establishment agreement, it needs to be supplemented by the making of a national law and a headquarter agreement between the host state and GCF. Although the contracting parties have agreed to confer to the GCF legal personality, at this stage, the international legal personality of the GCF is only potential. It is only through the concrete exercise of its power independently from its members that the GCF may acquire international legal personality. However, nothing prevents an international organization generally considered as not possessing international legal personality from concluding international treaties, although the conclusion of treaties is an important indicator of the international legal personality of international organizations. Moreover, the importance of headquarter agreements is rather limited as normally a host state provides for the legal personality in the domestic legal system, regardless of its membership in the organization. There is no direct relationship between international legal personality and domestic legal personality. An international organization may possess international but not domestic personality, or the other way around. Nothing keeps a state from conferring domestic legal personality on an organization deprived of personality in international law. Further, there is fast-growing room where the constitutional rules on the relation between municipal and international law cannot answer the legal status of an international entity within the domestic legal sphere. Therefore, the crux of the matter remains the making of the International Organization Law. In other words, it is necessary that domestic legal personality of an international organization should derive directly from the enactment of domestic measures as much as possible, which would lessen a problem for the stability of its legal status.