The ILC and State Responsibility

The handling by the International Law Commission (ILC) of state responsibility, hazardous activities, and strict liability reveals in many ways the Commission’s strengths and limitations. This work also tells much about the development of international law and the extent to which there is—or is not—an international community. The Commission’s work on state responsibility in particular also illustrates the validity of Holmes’s immortal statement about logic and the life of the law, the utility of Occam’s razor, and the value of William James’s pragmatism. Even if Philip Allott were close to the mark—as he often is—in calling the draft articles, as they then were, “bland gruel,” it is hard to ignore the need for the articles or their contribution to the unification of international law. Both are witnessed by tribunals’ eagerness to cite the Commission’s texts even before their formal adoption. While this practice has upset some as premature, it reflects the symbiotic process that has evolved over time as both the Commission and courts and tribunals labor to clarify existing law. Codification of lex lata may be no less effective if contained in a paragraph of a report rather than in an article of a multilateral treaty

Commission · International law · Law and economics · Political science · Sociology · State (computer science · State responsibility · Treaty · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · International Law and Human Rights · Law

• The International Law of Human Trafficking

  Open Access•Anne T Gallagher, Anne High Commissioner Gallagher•International Law of Human…•2010

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• Consent Precluding State Responsibility

  Open Access•Ademola Abass•International and Comparative Law…•2004

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• Adjudging the Exceptional at International Investment Law

  Open Access•Jürgen Kurtz•International and Comparative Law…•2010

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• Introduction and Overview

  Open Access•Daniel Bodansky, John R Crook•American Journal of International…•2002

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• Problems and Process

  Rosalyn Higgins•Problems and Process•1995

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• Precluding wrongfulness or responsibility

  Vicki Lowe•European Journal of International…•1999

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