Titled State Responsibility in Crisis, the workshop responded to a pressing reality: the law of state responsibility is being tested in ways its original architects could scarcely have imagined. Developed in an era of largely bilateral disputes, the framework was designed for situations in which one state directly injured another, with relatively clear lines of attribution, breach, and causation. Today, however, international legal problems are rarely bilateral. They unfold across multilateral settings, shared spaces, and networks of actors that extend far beyond the state alone.
Across contemporary armed conflicts, climate change, and global displacement, questions that once seemed straightforward—who acted, who breached, who caused harm, and who must repair it—have become deeply contested. States now operate alongside other states, international organisations, private companies, and non-state groups. Actions are coordinated, outsourced, or conducted at a distance, whether through arms transfers, peacekeeping, private contractors, cyber operations, or AI-enabled technologies. Harm, particularly in the climate context, is cumulative, transboundary, and scientifically complex, challenging traditional approaches to causation and responsibility. In situations of displacement, borders and obligations are increasingly externalised, creating deliberate distance that obscures both attribution and causation.
These themes shaped the structure of the workshop. The first panel examined the challenge of establishing attribution in multi-actor contexts. The second addressed complex causation where harm arises from cumulative, long-term, and interconnected actions. The third explored the evolving nature of primary obligations and the consequences of their breach when responsibility is shared, indirect, or diffuse.
The event was fantastically supported by our excellent PGRs, Ramy Moustafa Abdelhady and Gianna Eckert. Scholars presenting papers included Elisa Ruozzi, Daisy Peterson, Scarlett McArdle, Sotirios Lekkas, Sophie Capicchiano Young, Michael Oghenetega Abu, Abdülkadir Gülçür, Tamás Molnár, Felix Butz, Enenu Jenks Okwori, Vladyslav Lanovoy and Antal Berkes, with expert discussion led by Miles Jackson, Vladislava Stoyanova and Eirik Bjorge KC.
A keynote address by Violeta Moreno-Lax helped frame the workshop’s themes, drawing on years of engagement with questions of responsibility that remain acutely pertinent in the modern context.
Outputs from the workshop will be published as a blog symposium with Verfassungsblog in the autumn, followed by a journal special issue planned for early 2027.