State Responsibility

Sociology | Mercantile Law | International Law | International Relations

State Responsibility refers to a liability of a state that it bears against the other state for the non-observance of the obligations imposed by International Legal system.

GOVERNING LAW
The failure of the International Commission to draft a law for state responsibility since from 1949 later met the success in 2001 when it adopted ‘Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts.’

The Act has been divided into four parts:

  1. The Internationally Wrongful Act of a State
  2. Content of the International Responsibility of a State
  3. The Implementation of International Responsibility of a State
  4. General Provisions

WHEN IS A STATE RESPONSIBLE?
Article-1 of the Act states for the responsibility of a state in these words; “Every internationally wrongful act of a State entails the international responsibility of that State.”

Roughly speaking, such international wrongs may include any of the following acts provided the final characterization of the an act of a state as international wrong is to be governed by the international law;

  • If a state fails to honor a treaty
  • If it damages the territory of oblique property of another state
  • If it violates territorial sovereignty of another state
  • If it injures the diplomatic representatives of another state

But Article#2 of the Act has explicitly mentioned the elements of an internationally wrongful act of the state which also determine that when a state is liable;

(A) Attributable to the State under international law
(B) Constitutes a breach of an international obligation of the State

  • Attribution of act to a State
  • Direct International Wrongs
  • Indirect International Wrongs
  • Calvo clause and its uselessness
  • Admissibility and rejection of a state law