ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the circumstances under which the ILC engaged with the notion of countermeasures in the name of community interests. International law recognizes that in certain circumstances the responsibility of a state for the violation of its obligations will be precluded, thus rendering, for as long as they persist, the obligations concerned inoperative. State practice, too, recognized that the legitimate application of sanctions precluded the wrongfulness of the act and the responsibility of the state. During the Codification Conference in 1930, the Preparatory Committee accepted that reprisals could be justified in certain circumstances, an issue that no government disputed. The acceptance of countermeasures in the law of state responsibility was accompanied by certain concerns and considerable reservations. The recognition that countermeasures could turn into a powerful weapon in the hands of states was the driving force behind the urge to impose the strictest conditions in the use of such measures.
