ABSTRACT
Nicholas Tsagourias considers the application of the international rules on the use of force to non-state actors. His chapter claims that the customary rule on the non-use of force binds non-state actors as international actors. With respect to forcible responses to uses of force by non-state actors, he claims that states can use force by way of self-defence against states when they are implicated in the activities of non-state actors but can also use force by way of self-defence directly against non-state actors when other states are not implicated therein. In the latter case, any incidental breach of obligation by the acting state is precluded according to the law of state responsibility.
