Dr Haim Abraham’s book, Tort Liability in Warfare: States’ Wrongs and Civilians’ Rights (Oxford University Press, 2024) was recently the subject of a book sy...

The recent event explored how shifting geopolitical dynamics impact tort law, how private law could play a greater role in armed conflict, and more.

States’ ability to impose liability for extraterritorial torts is often structured to avoid an illegitimate assertion of authority by one state over another. However, the resulting liability regimes are inconsistent and difficult to justify. In this article, I argue that limitations of liability in this context have been based on misconceptions about abuse of power. I employ instrumental and rights-based approaches to states’ authority to demarcate a coherent framework for states’ liability for extraterritorial torts. I show that courts can impose liability on their own state and officials for extraterritorial torts as authority is not exerted over a foreign state. Liability can also be imposed on foreign states for their extraterritorial torts through consent, a sufficient jurisdictional connection to the tort, or the establishment of universal jurisdiction by a breach of jus cogens norms. Lastly, I assert that punitive damages are generally an illegitimate form of exerting authority.

A book symposium