Impact on State Responsibility

This chapter will explore the extent to which general international law principles of state responsibility have been influenced by international human rights law, rather than the impact of state responsibility on international human rights law. It will focus on the two core aspects of state responsibility: attribution to a state, and the extent of the obligations on a state for which it has international legal responsibility. It will also consider the general impact that international human rights law may have had upon the broader understanding of state responsibility. In so doing, the issue of whether it is appropriate in any event to engage in an evaluation of the impact of international human rights law on the general international law of state responsibility, especially considering the apparently ‘private’ nature of many human rights abuses, will be considered.