Responsibility of states for damage caused in their territory to the person or property of foreigners

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1831665921

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-222025

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Maúrtua, Víctor M.; Scott, James Brown http://d-nb.info/gnd/117654191

Title:: Responsibility of states for damage caused in their territory to the person or property of foreigners

Place of publication:: New York

Publisher:: Oxford Univ. Press

Year of publication:: 1930

Scope:: V, 67 S.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: I. The basis of state responsibility

Collection:: Economics Books

RESPONSIBILITY OF STATES In the discussion of the development of questions relating to responsi- bility, it is sufficient to establish—Germany maintains, in her reply to the aforementioned inquiry—that the principles of international law, whether derived from contractual obligation or from common usage, are actual rules of law which bind the interested States. It seems useless, she adds, to dis- cuss in detail the ground for the binding force of international law. How- ever, this is just precisely the tendency of one of the schools. It is a prac- tical averment, which bases responsibility upon the will of the State. Re- sponsibility would thus assume a highly inter-State character, eliminating therefrom every consideration in reference to individuals, and would be utterly subjected to the doctrines derived from those two sources. Conse- quently, there would be no occasion for the application of any principles whatsoever. The Government of Japan, on the other hand, in its reply to that same questionnaire, states that the legal binding force of responsibility goes so far as to render the conduct of States subject to the rules and prin- ciples of the law of Nations. This is, indeed, a broader view, which would also exert considerable influence in the practical solution of various forms of responsibility. Moreover, this view is more in line with the statutory provi- sions of the International Court of Justice, which may be considered, at the present stage of international affairs, as one of the organizing agencies of the system of substantive law. (c) There is no question but that, upon undertaking a scientific compila- tion or codification of matters in reference to responsibility, it would be extremely useful to lay a legal foundation therefor, which, while not follow- ing any school in particular, should have a broad and flexible scope, to per- mit of proper application to cover all the practical situations arising from the doctrine of State responsibility, as it is at present conceived in the juridical mind of the world. It would not be quite possible to exclude alto- gether some principle to serve as a general guide in the establishment of a system covering responsibility of States, the spirit of which, either expressly or implicitly, should be ever present in any and all proceedings. Even though this principle might not be expressly stated, it would become neces- sary as judicial precedent in each and every one of the problems derived therefrom, And, just which should this principle be? The doctrine of the common assent of nations has been properly objected to; and the objections raised to the form propounded by the Preparatory Committee of the Codification Conference are due, in part, to a confusion of views. It should be borne in mind, however, that common assent has a double significance: first, the one which may be termed, as Mr. R. Erich has done, the legislative assent cover- ing the rules of the law of Nations; and, second, the rules of conduct to which States and other political entities should conform in order to be

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: Responsibility of states for damage caused in their territory to the person or property of foreigners

Monograph

Chapter

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

Chapter

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation