It can include consular action, negotiations with the other state, political and economic pressure, judicial or arbitral proceedings or other forms of peaceful dispute settlement.
[citation needed] Specifically, in Latin America, the Calvo Doctrine was devised to avoid the invocation of diplomatic protection by Western nationals.
After the Second World War, with the use of force being outlawed as an instrument of international relations, diplomatic protection usually takes other forms, such as judicial proceedings or economic pressure.
[5] Hence, under general international law, a state is in no way obliged to take up its national's case and resort to diplomatic protection if it considers this not to be in its own political or economic interests.
Customary international law recognises the existence of certain requirements that must be met before a state can validly espouse its national's interest.