Part II International Responsibility—Development and Relation with Other Laws, Ch.14 The Concept of ‘Soft Responsibility’?
Jean-Marc Sorel
From: The Law of International Responsibility
Edited By: James Crawford, Alain Pellet, Simon Olleson, Kate Parlett
- Subject(s):
- Responsibility of states — Wrongful acts — Reparations — Soft law
The question of ‘soft responsibility’ remains largely a doctrinal subject which can only be approached through inferences from scattered and informal practice. The starting postulate is clear: the universe of ‘soft law’ does not have an appropriate form of responsibility—itself ‘soft’—as a matter of positive law. This hypothesis is confirmed by the ILC’s silence: nothing in the ILC Articles supports directly or even indirectly the concept of soft responsibility. Articles 1 and 2 define internationally wrongful acts as actions or omissions attributable to a State...