Accertamento delle gravi violazioni del diritto internazionale e progetto di articoli sulla responsabilità degli Stati per atti internazionalmente illeciti: non è mai troppo tardi...

The article begins by identifying certain lacunae in the Draft Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts (DARSIWA). Among these, particular attention is given to their lack of a mechanism for the peaceful settlement of disputes relating to grave breaches of peremptory norms. The author considers that this absence makes the DARSIWA a truncated instrument. In the 1990s, Special Rapporteur Gaetano Arangio- Ruiz had proposed such a mechanism, involving the Security Council, the General Assembly and the International Court of Justice. This proposal was ultimately dropped in the final version of the DARSIWA. Surprisingly, the recent practice of several principal organs of the UN regarding the Russian Federation’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine seems to have “resuscitated” the mechanism proposed by Gaetano Arangio-Ruiz. Other topics, such as compensation and due diligence, not adequately developed in the DARSIWA, have been recently included in the long-term programme of work of the ILC.