Hazel L.

Blanquisco
Public International Law
Saturday/1:00-4:00pm
Atty. Ever-Rose Y. Higuit
Arellano University School of Law

Doctrine of State Responsibility

The Doctrine of State Responsibility is one of the subjects of international law that concerns the
breach by a State of one or more of its international obligations. Responsibility, in international law, is
defined as the outcome of an obligation. This means that for every breach of international obligations by
a State entails its international responsibility.

However, to make a state responsible, elements of the Doctrine of State Responsibility should be
met. These elements are provided in the Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally
Wrongful Acts (ARSIWA) completed by the International Law Commission in August of 2001. The first
element requires that the act or omission must constitute a breach of an international legal obligation or,
as the articles put it, must be "not in conformity with what is required" by the international obligation.
This implies that the obligation in question must be binding on the State at the time of the act or omission,
which is said to constitute a breach; and that there must be a willful neglect of duty, an outrage, to bad
faith, or insufficiency of governmental action, such that every reasonable and impartial man would readily
recognize its inadequacy or the “non-conformity with what is required”. Second, the act or omission must
be directly or indirectly imputable to the State. Since the State cannot act on its own, the act or omission
stated herein refers to the acts or omission of the State Organs who shall represent the state in any matters.
The act or omission will give rise to liability may either be: a) acts of governmental officials, or b) acts of
private individuals. The acts of governmental officials are acts of the primary agents of the State which
will give rise to direct state responsibility. However, only acts of government officials within their official
capacity or authority are attributable to the State. On the other hand, for the State to be held responsible
for acts of private individuals, it must be shown that there was an actual or tacit complicity of the
government in the act, either carried out on instructions of the State or it was under direction or control of
State.

The commission of these internationally wrongful acts will result to new obligations which entail
State responsibility. First, that State is under an obligation to make full reparation for the injury caused
by the internationally wrongful act. Reparation may take one of three forms: restitution, compensation, or
satisfaction. Traditionally, restitution has played the primary role, although in instances in which
restitution is materially impossible, the injured State may have to content itself with compensation or
satisfaction. Second, the responsible State is under an obligation to conclude the internationally wrongful
act if it is continuing, and in an appropriate case, may be required to make assurances and guarantees of
non-repetition.

This concludes that every State has responsibility to protect its nationals and alien nationals. In
case of failure to fulfill its primary obligation to afford, in accordance with international law, the proper
protection due to its nationals or alien nationals of the another state, a responsible State is under the
obligation to make full reparations.