State Responsibility and the Principle of Joint and Several Liability

Abstract

The law of multiple state responsibility is undeveloped. The scholarly literature is surprisingly devoid of reference to the circumstances or consequences of multiple state responsibility. Judicial or arbitral decisions addressing a state's assertions that other states share responsibility are essentially unknown. Given this lack of attention to multiple state responsibility, it is not surprising that the issue of reparation in such circumstances has received even less attention. Yet, a mature system of international law must comprehend the responsibility of multiple state actors for a single event-including the responsible states' duties of reparation.