State Responsibility

Question 1

What are the consequences of a state violating one of its international legal obligations?

Answer 1

• Normative condemnation (“naming and shaming”).
• Compensation to entities to whom the duty has been breached.
• Reciprocal acts by those entities
• Treaty termination

Question 2

What does state responsibility concern?

Answer 2

State responsibility concerns the questions of when and how states can be responsible for breaching international law and what consequences follow.

Question 3

What does state responsibility focus on?

Answer 3

State responsibility focused on the consequences that follow from a state’s breach of conduct norms. State responsibility covers the breach of any international obligation.

Question 4

States entrusted the elaboration and codification of the law of state responsibility to the International Law Commission (ILC). In 2001, the ILC adopted the Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts.

Under Article 1, what is the central rule of state responsibility?

Answer 4

Every internationally wrongful act of a State entails the international responsibility of that State.

Question 5

States entrusted the elaboration and codification of the law of state responsibility to the International Law Commission (ILC). In 2001, the ILC adopted the Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts.

Under Article 2, what conditions establish an “internationally wrongful act?”

Answer 5

Requires an “act or omission” that

(a) is attributable to the State under international law, and
(b) constitutes a breach of an international legal obligation of the state

(States are only responsible when they themselves commit an internationally wrongful act)