ABSTRACT
The subject of state responsibility is founded upon one state having the capacity to make a claim against another state in respect of acts or omissions that are attributable to that other state. In principle, state A will only take up the claims of its own nationals or those of companies registered within its own territory. Each state will have its own internal rules as to the cases in which it will offer full diplomatic and consular protection. Thus, in the United Kingdom the Rules relating to International Claims issued by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1985 indicate in Rule 1 that: ‘Her Majesty’s Government will not take up the claim unless the claimant is a United Kingdom national and was so at the date of the injury.’78 It was accepted in customary international law that a state was under a general duty to protect its own nationals and such a state had a discretion whether to take up their claims. Thus the United Kingdom will not normally take up a claim after a person ceases to be a United Kingdom79 national or where there has been undue delay,80 but may continue to act on behalf of a personal representative when the claimant has died.81 Although each state may, in principle, draft its own rules, such rules must be in accordance with the broad principles of international law in order for the claim to be admissible.
