State of Necessity

State of necessity, now known as necessity and codified by Article 25 of the International Law Commissions (ILCs) Articles on State Responsibility (ASR), is a circumstance precluding the wrongfulness of an otherwise internationally wrongful act. It is traditionally defined as a situation in which the sole means by which a state can safeguard an essential interest from a grave and imminent peril is to sacrifice another states interest of lesser importance. The plea is unavailable where the rule from which derogation is sought precludes its invocation, where the state invoking necessity has contributed to perils onset, or where the act to safeguard the essential interest is contrary to a peremptory norm. As traditionally understood, the essential interests safeguarded in necessity are state interests, but the ILC included as progressive development in Article 25 ASR the possibility for a stateor several states acting together unilaterallyto safeguard in necessity an essential interest of the international community as a whole. The ILCs Draft Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations (DARIO), now also provides as progressive development for the possibility of an international organization, acting in necessity, to safeguard an essential interest of the international community as whole, subject to the organization having the role of protecting the interest in question as well as the other conditions traditionally associated with state of necessity, as set out above, being met. Indeed, initially the ILC considered that an international organization cannot invoke necessity to safeguard its own essential interest (see the section on the ILCs Draft Articles on Responsibility of International Organizations).