The extent to which States have legal responsibilities under international humanitarian law in relation to the conduct of others has long been contested. Under general international law, the law on State responsibility does set out certain circumstances in which States have negative and positive obligations arising from others’ wrongful conduct, yet these are heavily restricted.
In this post – part of a joint blog symposium with Opinio Juris exploring the ICRC Commentary on the Third Geneva Convention (GCIII Commentary) – Lawrence Hill-Cawthorne, an Associate Professor in Public International Law at the University of Reading, considers the relationship between the ICRC’s interpretation of common Article 1 of the Geneva Conventions and the general rules on State responsibility. He shows that the ICRC’s approach is grounded in, yet expands in important respects, the general international law rules that place obligations on States in relation to the wrongful conduct of others.
