Reparation

In international law, reparation is the remedy owed by a state (or other responsible actor) for breaching an international obligation. The classical formulation comes from the Permanent Court of International Justice in the Factory at Chorzów case (1928), which held that reparation must "as far as possible, 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."

The International Law Commission's Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts (ARSIWA, 2001) codify the modern framework. Article 34 lists three forms of reparation, which may be applied singly or in combination:

• Restitution (Art. 35) — re-establishing the situation that existed before the wrongful act, where materially possible and not disproportionately burdensome.
• Compensation (Art. 36) — payment for financially assessable damage, including loss of profits, when restitution is unavailable.
• Satisfaction (Art. 37) — acknowledgement of the breach, expression of regret, or formal apology, typically used for non-material injury such as affronts to sovereignty.

Reparation is distinct from sanctions or punishment: it is compensatory and restorative, not penal. It also applies in international humanitarian law and international human rights law, where individuals (not only states) may be beneficiaries — see the UN Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation (General Assembly Resolution 60/147, 2005), which add rehabilitation and guarantees of non-repetition to the list of forms.

Historical examples include the reparations imposed on Germany by Part VIII of the Treaty of Versailles (1919), West German payments to Israel under the Luxembourg Agreement (1952), and Iraq's compensation regime for the 1990–91 Gulf War administered by the UN Compensation Commission established by Security Council Resolution 692 (1991). More recently, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution ES-11/5 (2022) calling for a reparation mechanism for damage caused by Russia's aggression against Ukraine.