Shperun K. Legal status of the International Monetary Fund.

The dissertation is devoted to the complex analysis of the international legal status of the International Monetary Fund as an international intergovernmental organization and an institutional basis of the international monetary system. The dissertation considers the problems of the IMF legal nature, in particular, such its features as legal grounds for activity, membership and international legal personality. The legal grounds for the activity of this organization are investigated. It is pointed out that the juridical base of its activity consists of various, in their legal nature, documents. The Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund (the Charter), being its Articles of Association, are the most important among them. The basic approaches to the definition of the concept and types of membership in the international organizations in general and in the IMF in particular are generalized. It is pointed out that the IMF provides for only two types of membership: primary and secondary. There are no associate members or other similar types of membership in the Fund although such type of membership was applied towards the USSR. It is indicated that the termination of membership in the IMF is possible in four forms: secession, expulsion, due to extinction of the state and due to extinction of the international organization On the basis of the analysis of the main approaches to the problem of legal standing of the international organizations the problem concerning the international legal personality of the IMF is resolved. It is pointed out that, according to the opinion of the majority of scientists, in order to acquire the status of the international legal entity, the international organization must have a number of international rights and obligations, in particular rights to privileges and immunities, rights to conclusion of contracts with the states and other international organizations, rights to exchange missions with the states and international organizations, and the obligation to bear responsibility under international law for its actions. The IMF possesses all the indicated features. The issue of the IMF supranationalism is analyzed additionally. It is affirmed that currently the Fund does not possess supranationalism and cannot make decisions binding for all member states. It lost this feature due to the introduction of amendments to its charter in the 60s of XX c. In general it was a supranational body from the moment of its foundation and till the formation of Jamaica monetary system