State Responsibility in Peacekeeping The effect of responsibility on future contributions

While the law on state responsibility is a well-developed field in international law, the potential for responsibility on the part of the state as a result of events taking place during peacekeeping missions is a fairly novel phenomenon. Internationally, claims in this field have been brought before the European Court of Human Rights and the International Court of Justice. National courts, on the other hand, have heard a total of six cases on the matter, in Belgium, the UK, and the Netherlands, all eventually apportioning responsibility to the state. This paper explores the effect that the potential for responsibility, as manifested in the outcomes of these recent cases, may have on state behaviour with respect to its future contributions to peacekeeping. The paper combines an exploration of the relevant adjudged cases with views collected from experts and academia in order to formulate three hypotheses on the effect of the potential for responsibility on future state behaviour. These hypotheses are then applied to the example of the Netherlands in the aftermath of a series of decisions finding it responsible for events taking place during its involvement in peacekeeping in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s. Due to the recent timing of the cases, the paper concludes with preliminary findings on each of the hypotheses, thereby opening the door to future research on the topic.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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