Satisfaction as a Remedy for Internationally Wrongful Acts: A Reassessment in Light of Inter-State Judicial Practice

This chapter reappraises the role of satisfaction twenty years after the adoption of the 2001 ILC Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts and in light of inter-State judicial practice. The chapter demonstrates that inter-State courts and tribunals award satisfaction as a form of reparation for internationally wrongful acts, but they do so in a way that does not necessarily reflects ARSIWA and may occasionally appear controversial. There are three main emerging trends that seem to crop up from the analysis of jurisprudence. First, courts and tribunals often award satisfaction without referring specifically to non-material injury caused to the State, and use satisfaction as an alternative, rather than residual, remedy to restitution and compensation. Second, satisfaction seems to be strictly linked to certain typologies of internationally wrongful acts. Third, while applicant States appear to recognise different forms of satisfaction and request them depending on the circumstances of the case, judicial bodies almost exclusively resort to declarations of wrongfulness.