Asser researcher co-authors Guiding Principles on Shared Responsibility in International Law

Published 24 August 2020

The Drafting Committee of the Guiding Principles on Shared Responsibility in International Law at the United Nations

Asser senior researcher Dr Berenice Boutin was part of the Drafting Committee of the Guiding Principles on Shared Responsibility in International Law, which were recently published in the Foreword section of the European Journal of International Law (Volume 31, Issue 1).

The Guiding Principles on Shared Responsibility in International Law seek to provide guidance to judges, practitioners and researchers when confronted with legal questions of shared responsibility of states and international organisations for their contribution to an indivisible injury of third parties. The Guiding Principles identify the conditions of shared responsibility (including questions of multiple attribution of conduct), the consequences of shared responsibility (notably, the possibility of joint and several liability) and the modes of implementation of shared responsibility. The Guiding Principles are of an interpretive nature. They build on the existing rules of the law of international responsibility and sometimes offer novel interpretations thereof. They also expand on those existing rules, backed by authoritative practice and scholarship, to address complex questions of shared responsibility.

The Drafting Committee was composed of André Nollkaemper (co-chair), Jean d’Aspremont (co-chair), Christiane Ahlborn, Berenice Boutin, Nataša Nedeski and Ilias Plakokefalos. The Principles draw on the findings and output generated by the SHARES research project on shared responsibility in international law, conducted at the University of Amsterdam under the direction of Professor André Nollkaemper.

To read the full publication, please click here

Dr Berenice Boutin is a senior researcher in international law at the Asser Institute. She is part of the research strand Human dignity and human security in international and European law. Berenice is project leader of the research project Designing International Law and Ethics into Military Artificial Intelligence (DILEMA). She is also a member of the Editorial Board of OXIO, and Associate Fellow with the SHARES Project.