ABSTRACT
This chapter explores dispute settlement, sanctions and enforcement procedures and highlights consistency and inconsistency raised by the different regimes of individual criminal responsibility and State aggravated responsibility. The analysis thus moves from the breach of a primary norm to secondary and tertiary substantive and procedural norms. Concerning non-severable erga omnes obligations, the International Law Commission refers to the International Court of Justice case-law and indicates the prohibition of aggression, genocide, basic human rights and the right to self-determination of peoples. Sanctions are secondary obligations applying to the breach of a primary duty. They therefore provide essential information on the nature of the primary obligation breached. According to 2001 DASR 49(1), countermeasures, which were once defined as ‘reprisals’, aim to implement sanctions. Therefore, countermeasures are actions taken to enforce secondary obligations, when these are breached, which entails their limited application in time, reversibility and proportionality.
