ABSTRACT

There is little doubt that public international law has undergone radical change in the past century, but one development that has yet to crystallise – at least as a legal principle – is state accountability. However, the modern recognition by states that certain norms are so fundamental that they are non-derogable (often called jus cogens norms) proves that more than just state interests infl uence both the development and implementation of contemporary public international law. The argument presented here is that if state accountability is understood as a sometimes legal and – probably in part – political or even moral response, which recognises that the institutions that comprise and legitimise the state were instrumental in the particular breach, then a typology of accountability can in fact be identifi ed in state practice. In turn, it will be suggested that there is evidence that state accountability, as it is conceptualised here, is evolving into a legal principle.