ON PROPORTIONALITY OF COUNTERMEASURES IN INTERNATIONAL LAW

The principle of proportionality, is generally held to govern the extent to which a provocation may be lawfully countered by what might otherwise be an illegal response. Focusing on the application of proportionality to a range of subjects such as armed conflicts between states, interstate trade disputes, and restrictions on internationally protected human rights, this article finds that, despite its vagueness, the principle succeeds in modulating conflict between states because through frequent application it has shed Much of its indeterminacy.