50 Report of the International Law Commission on the work of its fifty-third session Article 10. Conduct of an insurrectional or other movement 1. The conduct of an insurrectional movement which becomes the new Government of a State shall be considered an act of that State under international law. 2. The conduct of a movement, insurrectional or other, which succeeds in establishing a new State in part of the territory of a pre-existing State or in a territory under its administration shall be considered an act of the new State under international law. 3. This article is without prejudice to the attribution to a State of any conduct, however related to that of the movement concerned, which is to be considered an act of that State by virtue of articles 4 to 9. Commentary (1) Article 10 deals with the special case of attribution to a State of conduct of an insurrectional or other movement which subsequently becomes the new Government of the State or succeeds in establishing a new State. (2) At the outset, the conduct of the members of the movement presents itself purely as the conduct of private individuals. It can be placed on the same footing as that of persons or groups who participate in a riot or mass demonstration and it is likewise not attributable to the State. Once an organized movement comes into existence as a matter of fact, it will be even less possible to attribute its conduct to the State, which will not be in a position to exert effective control over its activities. The general principle in respect of the conduct of such movements, committed during the continuing struggle with the constituted authority, is that it is not attributable to the State under international law. In other words, the acts of unsuccessful insurrectional movements are not attributable to the State, unless under some other article of chapter II, for example in the special circumstances envisaged by article 9. (3) Ample support for this general principle is found in arbitral jurisprudence. International arbitral bodies, including mixed claims commissions171 and arbitral tribunals172 have uniformly affirmed what Commissioner Nielsen in the Solis case described as a “well-established principle of international law”, that no Government can be held responsible for the conduct of rebellious groups committed in violation of its authority, where it is itself guilty of no breach of good faith, or of no negligence in suppressing insurrection.173 Diplomatic practice is remarkably consistent in recognizing that the conduct of an 171 See the decisions of the various mixed commissions: Zuloaga and Miramon Governments, Moore, History and Digest, vol. III, p. 2873; McKenny case, ibid., p. 2881; Confederate States, ibid., p. 2886; Confederate Debt, ibid., p. 2900; and Maximilian Government, ibid., p. 2902, at pp. 2928–2929. 172 See, e.g., British Claims in the Spanish Zone of Morocco (footnote 44 above), p. 642; and the Iloilo Claims, UNRIAA, vol. VI (Sales No. 1955.V.3), p. 158, at pp. 159–160 (1925). 173 UNRIAA, vol. IV (Sales No. 1951.V.1), p. 358, at p. 361 (1928) (referring to Home Frontier and Foreign Missionary Society, ibid., vol. VI (Sales No. 1955.V.3), p. 42 (1920)); cf. the Sambiaggio case (footnote 170 above), p. 524. insurrectional movement cannot be attributed to the State. This can be seen, for example, from the preparatory work for the 1930 Hague Conference. Replies of Governments to point IX of the request for information addressed to them by the Preparatory Committee indicated substantial agreement that: (a) the conduct of organs of an insurrectional movement could not be attributed as such to the State or entail its international responsibility; and (b) only conduct engaged in by organs of the State in connection with the injurious acts of the insurgents could be attributed to the State and entail its international responsibility, and then only if such conduct constituted a breach of an international obligation of that State.174 (4) The general principle that the conduct of an insurrectional or other movement is not attributable to the State is premised on the assumption that the structures and organization of the movement are and remain independent of those of the State. This will be the case where the State successfully puts down the revolt. In contrast, where the movement achieves its aims and either installs itself as the new Government of the State or forms a new State in part of the territory of the pre-existing State or in a territory under its administration, it would be anomalous if the new regime or new State could avoid responsibility for conduct earlier committed by it. In these exceptional circumstances, article 10 provides for the attribution of the conduct of the successful insurrectional or other movement to the State. The basis for the attribution of conduct of a successful insurrectional or other movement to the State under international law lies in the continuity between the movement and the eventual Government. Thus the term “conduct” only concerns the conduct of the movement as such and not the individual acts of members of the movement, acting in their own capacity. (5) Where the insurrectional movement, as a new Government, replaces the previous Government of the State, the ruling organization of the insurrectional movement becomes the ruling organization of that State. The continuity which thus exists between the new organization of the State and that of the insurrectional movement leads naturally to the attribution to the State of conduct which the insurrectional movement may have committed during the struggle. In such a case, the State does not cease to exist as a subject of international law. It remains the same State, despite the changes, reorganizations and adaptations which occur in its institutions. Moreover, it is the only subject of international law to which responsibility can be attributed. The situation requires that acts committed during the struggle for power by the apparatus of the insurrectional movement should be attributable to the State, alongside acts of the then established Government. (6) Where the insurrectional or other movement succeeds in establishing a new State, either in part of the territory of the pre-existing State or in a territory which was previously under its administration, the attribution to the new State of the conduct of the insurrectional or other movement is again justified by virtue of the continuity be174 League of Nations, Conference for the Codification of International Law, Bases of Discussion … (see footnote 88 above), p. 108; and Supplement to Volume III … (see footnote 104 above), pp. 3 and 20.