International Community? What International Community?

The paper is structured in three sections with distinctive yet intimately related perspectives on the notion of international community. The first section examines the very question of the definition of international community and its possible identification with the United Nations (UN). The second section provides a concise overview of the progressive emergence in international law – which has traditionally been the kingdom of bilateralism – of collective interests and rights. The notion of international community as a whole was essentially the result of a series of important decisions rendered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which culminated with the distinction, proclaimed in the Barcelona Traction Case judgment, between “ordinary obligations” and “obligations owned to the international community as a whole”. The third and last section focusses on the responsibility for international wrongful acts from two angles: the consequences of violations of obligations owned to the international community as a whole and the reaction to such violations. The work of the International Law Commission (ILC) on State Responsibility is of paramount importance, but may be considered as unfinished business as far as the obligations owned towards the international community as a whole are concerned.