Proportionality
in Crawford, Pellet & Olleson (eds), The Law of International Responsibility (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010) 1157–1168
13 Pages Posted: 3 Dec 2019 Last revised: 14 Dec 2019
Date Written: 2010
Abstract
The article provides a succinct analytical account of the rule of the law of State responsibility by which countermeasures are lawful only if 'commensurate with the injury suffered, taking into account the gravity of the internationally wrongful act and the rights in question'—that is, only if proportionate. It examines the rationale for the rule, elaborates on the problematic relationship posited in the rule between 'quantitative' and 'qualitative' injury, and emphasizes the inescapable inexactitude of the rule's proportionality calculus. The article concludes with a brief examination of the lex specialis represented by the WTO regime of so-called 'countermeasures'
Keywords: international responsibility, proportionality
JEL Classification: K33
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation