The Law of International Responsibility

Edited by James Crawford, Alain Pellet, and Simon Olleson

Oxford Commentaries on International Law

Authoritative treatment of specific topics in the law of international responsibility
Unique reference work for practitioners and scholars on a foundational topic in international law
Features contributions from a team of unrivalled experts in the law of state responsibility

The Law of International Responsibility

Edited by James Crawford, Alain Pellet, and Simon Olleson

Oxford Commentaries on International Law

Description

The law of international responsibility plays a fundamental role in the modern system of international law, surpassed by none and paralleled only by the law of treaties. The volume seeks to cover the entirety of the field of international responsibility, with a particular focus on the work of the International Law Commission. It provides detailed discussion and analysis of the historically predominant topics of State responsibility, on which the ILC completed its work in 2001, and the specific sub-topic of diplomatic protection, work on which was completed by the ILC in 2006. However, it also covers both the topic of responsibility of international organizations, on which the ILC's work is ongoing (a set of draft Articles having been adopted on first reading in 2009), and that of liability for harmful activities not prohibited under international law on which the ILC adopted drafts in 2001 and 2006.

The volume comprises contributions on specific issues in the international law of responsibility, authored by an international team of specialists in the field, which provides a comprehensive commentary of all aspects of the topic. The chapters are detailed in their coverage, discussing both international jurisprudence and doctrinal controversies, as well as providing a critical assessment of the relevant work of the ILC. In addition to providing detailed consideration of the general secondary rules of international responsibility, coverage is also included of certain specific systems of responsibility and their relationship with the general rules under a number of specialised regimes, in particular under certain human rights treaties, the WTO, and investment protection treaties.

The Law of International Responsibility

Edited by James Crawford, Alain Pellet, and Simon Olleson

Oxford Commentaries on International Law

Part I Introduction - Responsibility and International Law
1. The Definition of Responsibility in International Law, Alain Pellet
2. The System of International Responsibility, James Crawford
3. Primary and Secondary Rules, Eric David
Part II International Responsibility - Development and Relationship with Other Areas of Law
4. The Development of the Law of Responsibility in the Case Law, Patrick Daillier
5. Doctrines of State Responsibility, Martti Koskenniemi
6. Private Codification Efforts, Lucie Laithier
7. The Hague Conference of 1930, Clementine Bories
8. The Work of Garcia-Amador on State Responsibility for Injury Caused to Aliens, Daniel Muller
9. The ILC's Articles on State Responsibility, Alain Pellet
10. Liability for Injurious Consequences of Acts Not Prohibited by International Law, Alan Boyle
11. The Law of Responsibility and the Law of Treaties, Joe Verhoeven
12. Responsibility and the United Nations Charter, Vera Gowlland-Debbas
13. Leges speciales and Self-Contained Regimes, Bruno Simma & Dirk Pulkowski
14. The Emergence of "Soft" Responsibility, Jean-Marc Sorel
15. Relations between the International Law of Responsibility and Responsibility in Municipal Law, Pierre-Marie Dupuy
Part III The Sources of International Responsibility
16. Overview of Part One of the Articles on State Responsibility, Gilbert Guillaume
17. The Elements of an Internationally Wrongful Act, Brigitte Stern
18. The Rules of Attribution: General Considerations, Luigi Condorelli & Claus Kress
19. Attribution of Conduct to the State, Djamchid Momtaz, Gerard Cahin & Olivier de Frouville
20. Attribution of Conduct to Multiple States and the Implication of a State in the Act of Another State, Christian Domince
21. State Succession and Responsibility, Vaclav Mikulka
22. Attribution of Conduct to International Organizations, Pierre Klein
23. The Responsibility of Other Entities, Christian Tomuschat, Gerard Cahin & Anna-Karin Lindblom
24. Actions and Omissions, Franck Latty
25. Source of the Obligation, Yumi Nishimura
26. Content of the Obligation: Obligations of Means and Obligations of Result, Constantin Economides
27. Duration of the Breach, Jean Salmon
28. Relevance of the Inter-temporal Law, Paul Tavernier
29. International Crimes of States, James Crawford
30. The Character of the Violated Obligation, Antonio Cassese
31. The Character of the Breach, Paola Gaeta
32. The Notion of Circumstances Precluding Wrongfulness, Sandra Szurek
33. Circumstances Precluding Wrongfulness in the ILC Articles on State Responsibility, Affef Ben Mansour, Maja Menard, Jean-Marc Thouvenin, Hubert Lesaffre, Sandra Szurek & Sarah Heathcote
34. The Concept of Liability in the Absence of an Internationally Wrongful Act, Michel Montjoie
35. Allocation of Responsibility for Harmful Consequences of Acts not Prohibited by International Law, Philippe Guttinger
36. Obligations of Prevention and the Precautionary Principle, Gerhard Hafner & Isabelle Buffard
Part IV The Content of International Responsibility
37. Overview of Part Two of the Articles on State Responsibility, Roslyn Higgins
38. The Obligation of Cessation, Olivier Corten
39. Assurances and Guarantees of Non-Repetition, Sandrine Barbier
40. The Obligation of Reparation, Brigitte Stern
41. Interaction Between the Forms of Reparation, Yann Kerbrat
42. The Different Forms of Reparation, Christine Gray, John Barker, Elihu Lauterpacht, Eric Wyler & Alain Papaux
43. Contribution to the Injury, Anais Moutier-Lopet
44. Division of Reparation between Responsible Entities, Alexander Orakhelashvili
45. Punitive Damages, Stephan Wittich
46. The Obligation of Non-Recognition of an Unlawful Situation, Martin Dawidowicz
47. The Obligation of Non-Assistance of the Responsible State, Nina Jorgensen
48. The Obligation of Cooperation, Nina Jorgensen
49. International Criminal Responsibility of the State, Antoine Ollivier
50. The "Transparency" of the State, Rafaelle Maison
51. Responsibility for Violations of Human Rights Obligations, Susan Marks, Fiorentina Azizi, Raphaele Rivier, Jean-Paul Costa & Habib Gherari
52. Responsibility and the World Trade Organization, Joanna Gomula
53. Responsibility and International Environmental Law, Celine Negre
54. Other Specific Regimes of Responsibility, Zachary Douglas, Daniel Muller & Drazen Petrovic
55. Responsibility in the Context of European Community Law, Jean-Marc Thouvenin
56. The "Polluter Pays" Principle, Regis Chemain
57. Reparation in the Event of a Circumstance Precluding Wrongfulness, Mathias Forteau
58. The Law of the Sea, Gabriel Nakhleh & Mikael Quimbert
59. Space Law, Mathias Forteau
60. Nuclear Energy, Michel Montjoie
Part V The Implementation of International Responsibility
61. Overview of Part Three of the Articles on State Responsibility, James Crawford
62. The Concept of an Injured State, Giorgio Gaja
63. Plurality of Injured States, Rosaria Huesa Vinaixa
64. States having an Interest in Compliance with the Obligation Breached, Giorgio Gaja
65. Succession of States in respect of Rights of an Injured State, Vaclav Mikulka
66. Invocation of Responsibility by International Organizations, Eglantine Cujo
67. Individuals, Christian Tomuschat
68. Peoples and Minority Groups, Anne-Laure Vaurs-Chamette
69. Corporations, Vaughan Lowe
70. The International Community as a Whole, Anne-Laure Vaurs-Chamette
71. Notice of Claim by an Injured State, Jacqueline Peel
72. Waiver, Acquiescence and Extinctive Prescription, Christian Tams
73. Diplomatic Protection, John Dugard
74. Functional Protection, Muriel Ubeda-Saillard & Myriam Benlolo-Carabot
75. The Diplomatic Channel, Michael Waibel
76. Conciliation and Other Forms of Non-Binding Third Party Dispute Settlement, Nadine Susani
77. Arbitration, Frederique Coulee
78. Resort to International Courts, Gilles Cottereau
79. The Definition of Countermeasures, Denis Alland
80. Countermeasures in Response to Grave Violations of Obligations owed to the International Community as a Whole, Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos
81. Procedural Conditions, Yuji Iwasawa & Naoki Itwatsuki
82. Proportionality, Roger O'Keefe
83. The Time Factor in the Application of Countermeasures, Maurice Kamto
84. Obligations Relating to Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Simon Olleson & Silvia Borelli
85. Obligations Relating to the Use of Force and Deriving from Peremptory Norms of International Law, Charles Leben
86. Other Non-Derogable Obligations, Laurence Boisson de Chazournes
The ILC Texts
Draft Articles on State Responsibility (as adopted on first reading), 1996
Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, 2001
Articles on Diplomatic Protection, 2006
Draft Articles on Responsibility of International Organizations (as adopted on first reading), 2009

The Law of International Responsibility

Edited by James Crawford, Alain Pellet, and Simon Olleson

Oxford Commentaries on International Law

Author Information

James Crawford SC, FBA, is Director of the Lauterpacht Centre, University of Cambridge, Whewell Professor of International Law and a Fellow of Jesus College. He was a Member of the United Nations International Law Commission from 1992-2001 and Special Rapporteur on State Responsibility (1997-2001). In addition to scholarly work on statehood, self-determination, collective rights and international responsibility, he has appeared frequently before the International Court of Justice including in the Advisory Opinions on Nuclear Weapons (1996) and the Israeli Wall/Barrier (2004). He has also appeared before other international tribunals, and is actively engaged as an international arbitrator.
Alain Pellet teaches international law at the University of Paris X-Nanterre and was the Director of the Centre de Droit International (CEDIN) from 1991 to 2001. He has received many international decorations and was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1998 for his services to the French state. He is one of the most distinguished French experts on international law and has not only been an advisor to the French Government for many years but has also made a name for himself as the representative of several other states before the International Court of Justice in The Hague. He is one of the most active practitioners before the International Court of Justice as a Counsel. In addition, he acts in an advisory capacity to international organisations in issues concerning administration and international legislation. A member of the International Law Commission of the United Nations since 1990, he was their chairman in 1997. Simon Olleson's practice specializes in public international law, providing advice and advocacy in relation to traditional inter-State disputes, including before the International Court of Justice, investment protection disputes, international human rights law, issues of sovereign immunity, State succession and the law of the sea. Prior to coming to the Bar, Simon was a Research Associate and subsequently Fellow at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law of the University of Cambridge, with which he still retains links. He acted as assistant to Professor James Crawford, Special Rapporteur on State Responsibility, in the summer of 2001 during the International Law Commission's final consideration and adoption of the Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts and accompanying commentaries.

The Law of International Responsibility

Edited by James Crawford, Alain Pellet, and Simon Olleson

Oxford Commentaries on International Law

Reviews and Awards

"There is no doubt that this has, or will, become the seminal work in the burgeoning field of international responsibility. A word of advice for all law librarians, advanced International Law course professors, and international decision-makers: 'Don't leave home [or go to an office] without it.'" --ASIL UN21 Newsletter, Issue #42, September 2011