Problems of Protection and Security

Abstract

State responsibility for the protection of aliens—not to mention diplomats—arises both directly (through its own acts) and indirectly (through the acts of others). As in the fundamentalist view of sin, these acts may be considered as either positive, in the sense of acts of commission, or negative, as in acts of omission. Thus, Brierly maintains that “...a state incurs no responsibility for an injury suffered by an alien unless some fault either of commission or omission can be attributed to itself.”¹