Chapter

Ad hoc commitments by non-state armed actors : the continuing relevance of state consent

Eva Kassoti

Non-state actors and international obligations : creation, evolution and enforcement

Leiden ; Boston : Brill Nijhoff, 2018

p. 86-105

English

The present contribution seeks to revisit the question of the legal nature of unilateral ad hoc commitments issued by non-state actors. The chapter presents the two main approaches to the question of the juridical nature of these instruments to be found in the existing literature, namely the consent and customary law theses, and discusses the definitions of 'international legal personality' and 'law-making capacity' they each rest on. The author argues in favour of the customary law thesis, as it respects the definition between legal personality and law-making capacity. Looking at the wider implications of her findings, the author argues that the distinction between legal personality and law-making capacity presented here may serve as a broader basis for assessing commitments entered by other non-state actors in different fields of law.

• Non-state actors and international obligations : creation, evolution and enforcement / ed. by James Summers and Alex Gough