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This is an article on the subjects of international law. For a general article on the state, see State (polity). For sub-national entities called states, see Federated state. For other uses, see State (disambiguation).
A sovereign state is a state with a defined territory on which it exercises internal and external sovereignty, a permanent population, a government, independence from other states and powers, and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states. The government of a sovereign state holds legal title to all property therein. It is also normally understood to be a state which is not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state. While in abstract terms a sovereign state can exist without being recognised by other sovereign states, unrecognised states will often find it hard to exercise full treaty-making powers and engage in diplomatic relations with other sovereign states.
History
Since the late 19th century, virtually the entirety of the world's inhabitable land has been parcelled up into areas with more or less definite borders claimed by various states. Earlier, quite large land areas had been either unclaimed or uninhabited, or inhabited by
nomadic peoples who were not organized as states. However, even within present-day states there are vast areas of wilderness, like the
Amazon Rainforest, which are uninhabited or inhabited solely or mostly by
indigenous people (and some of them remain
uncontacted). Also, there are states which do not hold
de facto control over all of their claimed territory or where this control is challenged (as in
Somalia).
Currently the international community comprises more than 200 sovereign states, the vast majority of which are represented in the United Nations. These states form what international relations theorists call a system, where each state takes into account the behavior of other states when making their own calculations. From this point of view, states embedded in an international system face internal and external security and legitimation dilemmas. Recently the notion of an international community has been developed to refer to a group of states who have established rules, procedures, and institutions for the conduct of their relations. In this way the foundation has been laid for international law, diplomacy, formal regimes, and organizations.
Definition
Sovereignty is a term that is frequently misused. Up until the 19th century, the racialized concept of a “standard of civilization” was routinely deployed to determine that certain peoples in the world were “uncivilized”, and lacking organized societies. That position was reflected and constituted in the notion that their “sovereignty” was either completely lacking, or at least of an inferior character when compared to that of “civilized” peoples." Lassa Oppenheim said "There exists perhaps no conception the meaning of which is more controversial than that of sovereignty. It is an indisputable fact that this conception, from the moment when it was introduced into political science until the present day, has never had a meaning which was universally agreed upon." In the opinion of Justice Evatt of the High Court of Australia "sovereignty is neither a question of fact, nor a question of law, but a question that does not arise at all."
Sovereignty has taken on a different meaning with the development of the principle of self-determination and the prohibition against the threat or use of force as jus cogens norms of modern international law. The UN Charter, the Declaration on Rights and Duties of States, and the charters of regional international organizations express the view that all states are juridically equal and enjoy the same rights and duties based upon the mere fact of their existence as persons under international law. The right of nations to determine their own political status and exercise permanent sovereignty within the limits of their territorial jurisdictions is widely recognized.
In casual usage, the terms "country", "nation", and "state" are often used as if they were synonymous; but in a more strict usage they can be distinguished:
Nation denotes a people who are believed to or deemed to share common customs, origins, and history. However, the adjectives national and international are frequently used to refer to matters pertaining to what are strictly sovereign states, as in national capital, international law.
State refers to the set of governing and supportive institutions that have sovereignty over a definite territory and population.
Recognition
State recognition signifies the decision of a sovereign state to treat another entity as also being a sovereign state. Recognition can be either express or implied and is usually retroactive in its effects. It doesn't necessarily signify a desire to establish or maintain diplomatic relations.
There is no definition that is binding on all the members of the community of nations on the criteria for statehood. In actual practice, the criteria are mainly political, not legal. L.C. Green cited the recognition of the unborn Polish and Czech states in World War I and explained that "recognition of statehood is a matter of discretion, it is open to any existing state to accept as a state any entity it wishes, regardless of the existence of territory or an established government."
In international law, however, there are several theories of when a state should be recognized as sovereign.
Constitutive theory
The constitutive theory of statehood defines a state as a person of international law if, and only if, it is recognized as sovereign by other states. This theory of recognition, was developed in the 19th century. Under it, a state was sovereign if another sovereign state recognized it as such. Because of this, new states could not immediately become part of the international community or be bound by international law, and recognized nations did not have to respect international law in their dealings with them. In 1815 at the
Congress of Vienna the
Final Act only recognised 39 sovereign states in the European diplomatic system, and as a result it was firmly established that in future new states would have to be recognized by other states, and that meant in practice recognition by one or more of the
great powers.
One of the major criticisms of this law is the confusion caused when some states recognize a new entity, but other states do not. Hersch Lauterpacht, one of the theory's main proponents, suggested that it is a state's duty to grant recognition as a possible solution. However, a state may use any criteria when judging if they should give recognition and they have no obligation to use such criteria. Many states may only recognize another state if it is to their advantage.
Declarative theory
By contrast, the "declarative" theory defines a state as a
person in international law if it meets the following criteria: 1) a defined territory; 2) a permanent population; 3) a government and 4) a capacity to enter into relations with other states. According to declarative theory, an entity's statehood is independent of its recognition by other states. The declarative model was most famously expressed in the 1933
Montevideo Convention.
Article 3 of the Convention declares that statehood is independent of recognition by other states. In contrast, recognition is considered a requirement for statehood by the constitutive theory of statehood.
A similar opinion about "the conditions on which an entity constitutes a state" is expressed by the European Economic Community Opinions of the Badinter Arbitration Committee. The Badinter Arbitration Committee found that a state was defined by having a territory, a population, and a political authority.
State practice
State practice relating the recognition states typically falls somewhere between the declaratory and constitutive approaches. International law does not require a state to recognise other states.
Recognition is often withheld when a new state is seen as illegitimate or has come about in breach of international law. Almost universal non-recognition by the international community of Rhodesia and the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus are good examples of this. In the former case, recognition was widely withheld when the White minority seized power and attempted to form a state along the lines of Apartheid South Africa. A move which the United Nations Security Council described as the creation of an "illegal racist minority régime". In the latter case recognition was widely withheld from a state created in Northern Cyprus on land which was illegally invaded by Turkey in 1974.
De facto and de jure states
Most sovereign states are states
de jure and
de facto (i.e. they exist both in law and in reality). However, sometimes states exist only as
de jure states in that an organisation is recognised as having sovereignty over and being the legitimate government of a territory over which they have no actual control. Many continental European states maintained
governments-in-exile during the
Second World War which continued to enjoy diplomatic relations with the
Allies, notwithstanding that their countries were under Nazi occupation. A present day example is the
Sovereign Military Order of Malta, which is a
United Nations observer, has bi-lateral diplomatic relations with 104 states, while having no territory since 1798 and possessing only
extraterritorial areas since (i.e.
embassies and
consulates). Other states may have sovereignty over a territory but lack international recognition, these are
de facto states only.
Somaliland is commonly considered to be such a state. For a list of entities that wish to be universally recognized as sovereign states, but do not have complete worldwide
diplomatic recognition, see the
list of states with limited recognition.
See also
{|
|
Violent non-state actor
Unitary state
Rule according to higher law
State (polity)
State (administrative division)
Nation
Nation-building
Nation state
Montevideo Convention
|
List of states with limited recognition
List of sovereign states (by formation date)
Status of the Holy See in international law
International relations
Federal state
Failed state
Diplomatic recognition
Country
|}
Further reading
Chen, Ti-chiang. The International Law of Recognition, with Special Reference to Practice in Great Britain and the United States. London, 1951.
Crawford, James. The Creation of States in International Law. Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-19-825402-4, pp. 15–24.
Lauterpacht, Sir Hersch. Recognition in International Law. Cambridge, U.K., 1947.
Raič, D. Statehood and the Law of Self-determination. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2002. ISBN 9789041118905. p 29 (with reference to Oppenheim in International Law Vol. 1 1905 p110)
External links
Opinions of the Badinter Arbitration Committee at the European Journal of International Law
A Brief Primer on International Law With cases and commentary. Nathaniel Burney, 2007.
Official United Nations website
Official UN website on International Law
Official website of the International Court of Justice
References
Category:International law
Category:Political geography
) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. Its latitude at 64°08' N makes it the world's most northern capital of a sovereign state. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói Bay.](http://web.archive.org./web/20110513005451im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/5f/cf/274daa8d57da0467520cb070841e_grande.jpg "Central Reykjavík seen from Hallgrímskirkja. Reykjavík (Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈreiːkʲaviːk](Speaker Icon.svg listen)) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. Its latitude at 64°08' N makes it the world's most northern capital of a sovereign state. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói Bay.")
) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. Its latitude at 64°08' N makes it the world's most northern capital of a sovereign state. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói Bay.](http://web.archive.org./web/20110513005451im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/5f/cf/274daa8d57da0467520cb070841e_thumb.jpg "Central Reykjavík seen from Hallgrímskirkja. Reykjavík (Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈreiːkʲaviːk](Speaker Icon.svg listen)) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. Its latitude at 64°08' N makes it the world's most northern capital of a sovereign state. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói Bay.")
