When one state commits an international wrong against another – for example by breaching a treaty or by polluting its air space or water, or else by attacking it in an act of aggression – it incurs international responsibility to the injured state.

In such a case, the delinquent state must desist from the wrongful conduct and make reparations to the injured state.

However, a state can also incur indirect state responsibility to another. This may happen when it injures a foreign person or foreign corporation who happens to be within its territory. That is so because states must treat foreigners who visit their territories according to minimum standards prescribed by international law. If they do not, they directly injure the foreigner but they also indirectly injure the state that the foreigner belongs to. A state is indirectly injured when its nationals are harmed because international law views the nationals of a state as constituent elements of the state itself.

In matters of state responsibility, we have skills, expertise and experience in the following areas:

  • We assist states that have international disputes with other states with a view to ensuring that the harmful and injurious conduct desists. We also assist injured states with claims for reparations. We do this by representing states in international adjudications and arbitrations.

  • We can assist an individual whose international human rights have been, or are being, violated in a foreign state by authorities of that foreign state. This may happen when a visitor is detained in prison for an unreasonable period without trial or has had his or her property confiscated without compensation.

  • We can assist corporations that go into foreign states to do business but, whilst there, are harmed by the authorities of that state. It may be that the corporation’s concession has been breached or else that its money, assets or equipment were unlawfully seized or confiscated; or perhaps its staff members were killed or harmed by agents of the state.

  • We assist individuals and corporations whose home states refuse to assist them. We do this by invoking laws that may trigger an obligation on the part of their home state to intervene on their behalf, diplomatically or otherwise.

  • We assist nationals and corporations in a range of ways, starting with alternative dispute resolution but extending to arbitration and adjudication.