State responsibility

== Definition ==
State responsibility
Responsibility of States for internationally wrongful acts is a well-established concept in international law, resulting from the fact that each State has a legal personality and can bear legal obligations.James Crawford, “State Responsibility”, in R Wolfrum (ed), Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law (OUP 2008), para 1. The law of State responsibility is largely customary in nature; its codification is provided by the International Law Commission's Articles on State Responsibility. Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, prepared by the International Law Commission and approved by the General Assembly resolution 56/83 of 12 December 2001. While some of the Articles are more controversial, they are generally accepted as reflective of customary law.James Crawford, “State Responsibility”, in R Wolfrum (ed), Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law (OUP 2008), para 65. The law of State responsibility also applies to cyber operations and other cyber activities.UN GGE 2015 'Report of the Group of Governmental Experts on Developments in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security report' (22 July 2015) UN Doc A/70/174, para 28(f); Tallinn Manual 2.0, commentary to rule 14, para 1. See also, e.g., Japan, ‘Japan’s Position Paper for the Report of the United Nations Open-Ended Working Group on “Developments in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security”’ (undated) (‘Japan recognizes that basic rules on State responsibility including those on countermeasures applies to cyberspace.’); Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ‘Letter to the parliament on the international legal order in cyberspace’ (5 July 2019) 1 (‘Any violation of [obligations under international
law that apply to states in cyberspace] that is attributable to a
state constitutes an internationally wrongful act, unless there is a ground for precluding the wrongfulness of an act recognised in international law’); United Kingdom, ‘Statement on Other Disarmament Measures and International Security to the 72nd UNGA First Committee’ (23 October 2017) (‘We reaffirm that the law of state responsibility applies to cyber operations in peacetime’).
Every internationally wrongful act of a State – entailing both acts and omissions –, has two elements: 1) attributability to the State under international law, and 2) breach of an international obligation of the State.ILC Articles on State Responsibility, Art 2.Besides these two elements, it is necessary to ascertain whether the act in question involved any 3) circumstances precluding wrongfulness.ILC Articles on State Responsibility, Arts 20-26.
An internationally wrongful act entails the State’s international responsibility and gives rise to legal consequences, including the obligation to cease the conduct (if applicable) and the obligation to make full reparation for the injury caused.ILC Articles on State Responsibility, Arts 28, 30 and 31.
Publicly available common and national positions that address this issue include:
 (2024),
 (2024),
 (2020),
 (2024), 
 (2021),
 (2022),
 (2023),
 (2024), 
 (2023), 
 (2019), 
 (2021), 
 (2020), 
 (2021), 
 (2021), 
 (2020), 
 (2021),
 (2022),
 (2021), 
 (2021),
 (2022), 
 (2021), 
 (2018), 
 (2021),
 (2022), 
 (2021).
==Common positions==
===African Union (2024)===
===European Union (2024)===
==National positions==
===Australia (2020)===
===Austria (2024)===
===Brazil (2021)===
===Canada (2022)===
===Costa Rica (2023)===
===Czech Republic (2024)===
===Denmark (2023)===
===Estonia (2019)===
===Estonia (2021)===
===Finland (2020)===
===Italy (2021)===
===Japan (2021)===
===New Zealand (2020)===
===Norway (2021)===
===Poland (2022)===
===Romania (2021)===
===Russia (2021)===
===Sweden (2022)===
===Switzerland (2021)===
===United Kingdom (2018)===
===United Kingdom (2021)===
===United Kingdom (2022)===
===United States (2021)===
== Appendixes ==
=== See also ===
=== Notes and references ===
=== Bibliography and further reading ===
Category:State responsibility
Category:Legal concepts