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The article is devoted to the study of the conditions for the use of countermeasures in the contemporary international law. The application of countermeasures is not sufficiently regulated by the written norms of international law and is predominantly non-codified in a customary manner. The type and size of the countermeasures must be proportional to the offense committed, and the use countermeasures may be recognized as lawful only if the injured State or an international organization puts the offender in a position to comply with its obligations and notify of possible countermeasures. The basic principles of the application of countermeasures are the following: countermeasures should apply only to the State which has committed an internationally wrongful act; the unlawful nature of the act must be determined solely on the basis of the norms of international law; the purpose of applying countermeasures is to restore legitimate rights and interests of the victim only; countermeasures should ensure the return to the previous state that existed prior to the commission of an international offense and should not cause irreparable damage; the application of countermeasures is temporary only. The use of countermeasures is permissible only in case of exhaustion by the victim of other parties not connected with the use of means of protection of their rights and should be terminated when the violated right will be restored. Certain international obligations cannot be terminated in the order of application of countermeasures against the offender. These include, in particular, the obligation to refrain from using force or threat of force, an obligation to protect fundamental human rights, humanitarian obligations and other obligations arising from imperative norms of general international law.

The criminalization of aggression and the establishment of the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction over this crime make it necessary to provide a definition for this crime, and to determine the conditions under which the Court shall exercise its jurisdiction over this crime. However, this task is not an easy one given the ‘’particular nature’’ of the crime of aggression. The major challenge we are faced with lies in the difficulty to define and circumscribe the crime of aggression while abiding by the cardinal rules of international criminal law on the one hand, and the requirements of the law of the Charter or the law of the international Peacekeeping on the other. Due to the legal nature of the aggression, more precisely the atypical positioning characteristic of the crime of aggression, a crime which is halfway between the law of the international peacekeeping and the international criminal law, not forgetting the fact that this crime targets exclusively individuals who are ‘’ actually able to control or lead the political or military action of a State,’’ the legal regime of the crime of aggression is going to be fairly peculiar, in comparison with that of the other international crimes provided for by the Rome Statute; La criminalisation de l’agression et l’établissement de la compétence de la Cour pénale internationale sur ce crime obligent à donner une définition de ce crime, de même qu’à déterminer les conditions dans lesquelles la Cour exercera sa compétence sur ce crime. Cette tâche n’est cependant pas aisée en raison de la « nature particulière » du crime d’agression. Le problème majeur qui se pose est celui de la difficulté à définir et à encadrer le crime d’agression tout en respectant les règles cardinales du droit international pénal d’un côté et les exigences du droit de la Charte ou du droit international du maintien de la paix de l’autre côté.En raison de la nature juridique de l’agression et plus précisément du positionnement atypique qui caractérise le crime d’agression, crime à la croisée du droit international du maintien de la paix et du droit international pénal, sans oublier le fait que ce crime vise exclusivement les personnes « effectivement en mesure de contrôler ou de diriger l’action politique ou militaire d’un État », le régime juridique du crime d’agression va être assez particulier, ceci en comparaison de celui des autres crimes internationaux contenus dans le Statut de Rome.