The Responsibility of the State for the Protection of Foreign Officials

Abstract

The idea of obligation is of essential importance in any legal system: it is, in a sense, the sanction of law itself. But it is only in the last decade or so that the idea of the responsibility of states in international law has been detached from a subordinate or incidental discussion in connection with the rights of states, with treaties, or elsewhere, and given its proper position as an institute of international law. Only in the latest editions of texts has the legal significance of the word been recognized to such an extent that it is given a separate chapter treatment, upon a footing similar to that of equality, independence, or other accepted attributes of the state. As usual, more interest has been devoted to rights than to duties. Monographic treatment is very limited; and there is as yet no complete treatise. There are, of course, innumerable discussions of particular phases, especially in the case of injuries arising from civil war, but also for federal states, the acts of agents, the theories of risk and fault, et cetera.