Shared Responsibility in Coalitions of the Willing
Published as 'Coalitions of the Willing', in A. Nollkaemper and I. Plakokefalos (eds), The Practice of Shared Responsibility in International Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 2017), 701-732
30 Pages Posted: 1 Nov 2016 Last revised: 28 Jul 2017
Date Written: 2016
Abstract
This Chapter analyses the decisional processes in place, and the organisational structures characterising ‘coalitions of the willing’ and their executive bodies/commands, with a view of clarifying the rise of situations of shared responsibility between troop contributing nations. Such situations occur when the conduct of coalition troops may be imputed – at the same time – to all or some coalition partners. Particular attention is paid to the concept of ‘effective participation’ in the planning or execution of a specific decision as a precondition for multiple attribution of conduct. This Chapter also investigates the possibility of establishing different degrees of responsibility among coalition partners by reason of their degree of fault and the simultaneous application of multiple attribution tests, also presenting the 2011 international military intervention against Libya as a case study. The analysis demonstrates how individual responsibility of coalition partners may co-exist with forms of shared responsibility.
Keywords: Coalitions of the willing, decisional mechanisms, effective participation, international responsibility, Libya
JEL Classification: K33, K42, F51, F53
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation