38 Report of the International Law Commission on the work of its fifty-third session (7) The rule that the characterization of conduct as unlawful in international law cannot be affected by the characterization of the same act as lawful in internal law makes no exception for cases where rules of international law require a State to conform to the provisions of its internal law, for instance by applying to aliens the same legal treatment as to nationals. It is true that in such a case, compliance with internal law is relevant to the question of international responsibility. But this is because the rule of international law makes it relevant, e.g. by incorporating the standard of compliance with internal law as the applicable international standard or as an aspect of it. Especially in the fields of injury to aliens and their property and of human rights, the content and application of internal law will often be relevant to the question of international responsibility. In every case it will be seen on analysis that either the provisions of internal law are relevant as facts in applying the applicable international standard, or else that they are actually incorporated in some form, conditionally or unconditionally, into that standard. (8) As regards the wording of the rule, the formulation “The municipal law of a State cannot be invoked to prevent an act of that State from being characterized as wrongful in international law”, which is similar to article 5 of the draft adopted on first reading at the 1930 Hague Conference and also to article 27 of the 1969 Vienna Convention, has the merit of making it clear that States cannot use their internal law as a means of escaping international responsibility. On the other hand, such a formulation sounds like a rule of procedure and is inappropriate for a statement of principle. Issues of the invocation of responsibility belong to Part Three, whereas this principle addresses the underlying question of the origin of responsibility. In addition, there are many cases where issues of internal law are relevant to the existence or otherwise of responsibility. As already noted, in such cases it is international law which determines the scope and limits of any reference to internal law. This element is best reflected by saying, first, that the characterization of State conduct as internationally wrongful is governed by international law, and secondly by affirming that conduct which is characterized as wrongful under international law cannot be excused by reference to the legality of that conduct under internal law. (9) As to terminology, in the English version the term “internal law” is preferred to “municipal law”, because the latter is sometimes used in a narrower sense, and because the 1969 Vienna Convention speaks of “internal law”. Still less would it be appropriate to use the term “national law”, which in some legal systems refers only to the laws emanating from the central legislature, as distinct from provincial, cantonal or local authorities. The principle in article 3 applies to all laws and regulations adopted within the framework of the State, by whatever authority and at whatever level.91 In the French version the expression droit interne is preferred to législation interne and loi interne, because it covers all provisions of the internal legal order, whether written or unwritten and whether they take the form of constitutional or legislative rules, administrative decrees or judicial decisions. 91 Cf. LaGrand (Germany v. United States of America), Provisional Measures, Order of 3 March 1999, I.C.J. Reports 1999, p. 9, at p. 16, para. 28. Chapter II ATTRIBUTION OF CONDUCT TO A STATE Commentary (1) In accordance with article 2, one of the essential conditions for the international responsibility of a State is that the conduct in question is attributable to the State under international law. Chapter II defines the circumstances in which such attribution is justified, i.e. when conduct consisting of an act or omission or a series of acts or omissions is to be considered as the conduct of the State. (2) In theory, the conduct of all human beings, corporations or collectivities linked to the State by nationality, habitual residence or incorporation might be attributed to the State, whether or not they have any connection to the Government. In international law, such an approach is avoided, both with a view to limiting responsibility to conduct which engages the State as an organization, and also so as to recognize the autonomy of persons acting on their own account and not at the instigation of a public authority. Thus, the general rule is that the only conduct attributed to the State at the international level is that of its organs of government, or of others who have acted under the direction, instigation or control of those organs, i.e. as agents of the State.92 (3) As a corollary, the conduct of private persons is not as such attributable to the State. This was established, for example, in the Tellini case of 1923. The Council of the League of Nations referred to a Special Commission of Jurists certain questions arising from an incident between Italy and Greece.93 This involved the assassination on Greek territory of the Chairman and several members of an international commission entrusted with the task of delimiting the Greek-Albanian border. In reply to question five, the Commission stated that: The responsibility of a State is only involved by the commission in its territory of a political crime against the persons of foreigners if the State has neglected to take all reasonable measures for the prevention of the crime and the pursuit, arrest and bringing to justice of the criminal.94 (4) The attribution of conduct to the State as a subject of international law is based on criteria determined by international law and not on the mere recognition of a link 92 See, e.g., I. Brownlie, System of the Law of Nations: State Responsibility, Part I (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1983), pp. 132– 166; D. D. Caron, “The basis of responsibility: attribution and other trans-substantive rules”, The Iran-United States Claims Tribunal: Its Contribution to the Law of State Responsibility, R. B. Lillich and D. B. Magraw, eds. (Irvington-on-Hudson, N.Y., Transnational, 1998), p. 109; L. Condorelli, “L’imputation à l’État d’un fait internationalement illicite : solutions classiques et nouvelles tendances”, Recueil des cours…, 1984–VI (Dordrecht, Martinus Nijhoff, 1988), vol. 189, p. 9; H. Dipla, La responsabilité de l’État pour violation des droits de l’homme: problèmes d’imputation (Paris, Pedone, 1994); A. V. Freeman, “Responsibility of States for unlawful acts of their armed forces”, Recueil des cours…, 1955–II (Leiden, Sijthoff, 1956), vol. 88, p. 261; and F. Przetacznik, “The international responsibility of States for the unauthorized acts of their organs”, Sri Lanka Journal of International Law, vol. 1 (June 1989), p. 151. 93 League of Nations, Official Journal, 4th Year, No. 11 (November 1923), p. 1349. 94 Ibid., 5th Year, No. 4 (April 1924), p. 524. See also the Janes case, UNRIAA, vol. IV (Sales No. 1951.V.1), p. 82 (1925).