Restitution

The term restitution, in its broader sense, may be considered as a synonym for reparation, taken to encompass all the measures which an injured State may expect from the State responsible of an internationally wrongful act in order to ‘wipe out all the consequences of the illegal act and re-establish the situation which would, in all probability, have existed if that act had not been committed’ (Factory at Chorzów 47). Under a narrower view, the concept is synonymous for restitution in kind—restitutio in integrum—and it consists of the attainment of the status quo ante, that is the situation existing before the commission of the wrongful act or omission. In line with the choices made by the International Law Commission (ILC) in the Draft Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts (‘ILC Draft Articles’) adopted both in its first as well as in its second reading in 2001, the present entry will focus on the second meaning Restitution, or restitution in kind, usually consists