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The Once and Future Law of State Responsibility

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 October 2020

Martins Paparinskis
Martins Paparinskis*
Affiliation:
Reader in Public International Law, University College London. Email:[email protected]. I am grateful to Christiane Ahlborn, Roger O'Keefe, and Meagan Wong for their insightful comments.
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Abstract

The current (once) international law of state responsibility is shaped by the International Law Commission's Articles on responsibility of States for internationally wrongful acts, generally endorsed in state and judicial practice as consonant with custom. This Essay makes the case that the global pandemic and associated practice may affect foundational elements of the (future) law of state responsibility. It outlines the contours of systemic grain of possible developments by reference to the tension between bilateralism and community interests in international law.

Type
The International Legal Order and the Global Pandemic
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 114 , Issue 4 , October 2020 , pp. 618 - 626
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 by The American Society of International Law

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59 Obligations Concerning Negotiations Relating to Cessation of the Nuclear Arms Race and to Nuclear Disarmament (Marsh. Is. v. UK), 2016 ICJ Rep. 833, paras. 44–58 (Oct. 5) [hereinafter Obligations].

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62 Cf. 2019 ILC Draft Conclusions, supra note 56, Conclusion 17(2) (“Any State is entitled to invoke the responsibility of another State for a breach of … jus cogens.”), with the only two examples of application in the International Court of Justice, to a particular criminal cooperation procedure: Questions, supra note 60, and perhaps the most-endorsed contemporary peremptory rule, Myanmar Genocide, supra note 23, Annex (b), Commentary 6.

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64 Supra note 20, para. 17, also para. 37 (Russia); id.

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