Author: Maria Monnheimer

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781108795265

"There has been much debate in recent years about the role of non-state actors in international law. Whereas their presence is undisputedly acknowledged, their status and legal accountability remains unsettled. In many areas of public international law, harm is now significantly often caused by actors other than states.1 Terrorist groups threaten the territorial integrity of states; private security companies are involved in armed conflicts; individual hackers initiate cyber-attacks; and multinational corporations cause transboundary environmental harm or business-related human rights violations. Nonetheless, international treaties and customary international law still assign rights and duties almost exclusively to states. Outside of international criminal law, there are but few attempts to establish individual responsibility. On the other hand, state responsibility only arises if an international obligation is breached and that breach is attributable to a state whereas only the actions of state organs acting in their official capacity may implicate state responsibility and the conduct of private individuals usually does not. Such conduct may be attributed if private citizens act as so-called de facto organs or a state acknowledges their behavior as its own - which occurs rather rarely. The nature of state responsibility is inherently restorative with the primary objective to maintain or restore an equilibrium between equal and sovereign states"--