Part III The Sources of International Responsibility, Ch.33.7 Circumstances Precluding Wrongfulness in the ILC Articles on State Responsibility: Necessity

Necessity, previously called ‘state of necessity’ by the ILC, refers to situations where the sole means by which a State, or possibly the international community as a whole, can safeguard an essential interest threatened by a grave and imminent peril, is temporarily not to respect an international obligation protecting an interest of lesser value.1 The interest being thus protected might be one of the State alone, or perhaps, one of the international community as a whole.2 Elevating necessity to the rank of a circumstance precluding wrongfulness, a State, or...