Posted: February 10th, 2022

SUBJECTS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW:
LEGAL PERSONALITY

CHAPTER 5 :
SUBJECTS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW:
LEGAL PERSONALITY
 Participation + Community Acceptance
→International Personality
 different entities will possess different rights and
duties enforceable at law
 Individuals & companies become ‘legal persons’
possessing the certain rights and duties.
 Having a Legal personality is crucial.
EACH POSSESSING A DISTINCT LEGAL
PERSONALITY
 The law determines the scope and nature of
personality
 The status
 determinative of your powers and
obligations
 capacity
 link together the status of a person with
certain rights and duties.
LEGAL PERSONALITY IN INTERNATIONAL
LAW
 A range of factors need to be examined
 International personality =
 participation + some form of community
acceptance.
 Wide range of participants:
 States
 international organizations
 regional organizations
 non-governmental organizations
 public companies
 private companies
 Individuals
STATES
 the most important legal persons
 maintain the primary focus for the social activity of
humankind → international law.
 positivist:
 only states are subjects of international law.
CREATION OF STATEHOOD:
 Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of States,
1933:
 provides the most widely accepted formulation of the
criteria of statehood in international law
 state as an international person should possess the
following qualifications:
 a permanent population:
 a defined territory:
 government;
 Capacity to enter into relations with other states’.
SELF-DETERMINATION AND THE CRITERIA
OF STATEHOOD
 The evolution of self-determination has affected
the standard necessary as far as the actual
exercise of authority.
 New Guidelines for recognition of new states
requiring:
 the need to respect Rule of law
 Democracy
 Respect for human rights
 Guarantees of minority rights
RECOGNITION
 Recognition may be viewed as:
 Constitutive or Declaratory:
 The constitutive theory of statehood :
 a state exists exclusively via recognition by
other states
 requires “diplomatic recognition” or merely
“recognition of existence”
 The declaratory theory of statehood:
 an entity becomes a state as soon as it
meets the minimal criteria for statehood.
 Question: “can an entity become a state
without depending on the actions [i.e.,
recognitions] of existing states.?
EXTINCTION OF STATEHOOD
 Merger
 Absorption
 Dismemberment of an existing state
 Annexation (historical)
 Usually governments disappear, BUT it is
rather rarer for states to become extinct.
THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS OF STATES
 Draft Declaration on the Rights and Duties of
States prepared in 1949 by the International Law
Commission
 1-Independence: or sovereignty
 the capacity of a state to provide for its own wellbeing and development free from the domination
of other states, providing it does not impair or
violate their legitimate rights.
 international law dictates the scope and content
of the independence of states and not the states
themselves individually and unilaterally.
 Declaration on Principles of International Law
Concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation
among States adopted in October 1970 by the
United Nations General Assembly emphasized that:
 [n]o state or group of states has the right to
intervene, directly or indirectly, for any reason
whatever, in the internal or external affairs of any
other state. Consequently, armed intervention and
all other forms of interference or attempted threats
against the personality of the state or against its
political, economic and cultural elements, are in
violation of international law.
 2-Equality
 States, irrespective of size or power, have the same juridical
capacities and functions, and are likewise entitled to one vote
in the United Nations General Assembly.
 1970 Declaration on Principles of International Law:
(P155)
 States are juridically equal:
 States enjoy rights inherent in full sovereignty
 Territorial integrity and political independence are
sacred
 Can freely choose/develop its
political/social/economic/cultural systems
 3-Peaceful co-existence
 mutual respect for each other’s territorial
integrity and sovereignty
 mutual non-aggression and non-interference in
each other’s affairs
 the principle of equality.
 This idea was expanded in various resolutions of
the United Nations.
 Principles as execution of international
obligations in good faith with non-aggression
PROTECTORATES AND PROTECTED
STATES
 Protectorate: entity enters into relationship
with a state that results in separate
international personality, but NOT
statehood
 Protected state: Where two states retaining
their status as separate states but enter into
a treaty relationship that may give one state
the right to act on another’s territory
FEDERAL STATES
 There are various forms of federation or
confederation
 According to the relative distribution of
power between the central and local
organs.
 degree of authority and competence with
the component units
 division of powers
SUI GENERIS TERRITORIAL
ENTITIES/MANDATED AND TRUST
TERRITORIES
 UN Trusteeship Council / mandate system
 Condominium
 International administration of territories
 Taiwan
 The ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’
(TRNC)
 The Saharan Arab Democratic Republic
 Various secessionist claimants:
 Somaliland: 17 may 1991
 Moldova: Moldavian Republic of Transdniestria’
23 June 1990
 Associations of states

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CHAPITRE 5: INTERNATIONAL LAW SUBJECTS:

PERSONALITY IN LEGAL TERMS

Participation + Acceptance in the Community

International Notable

Different entities will have different rights and obligations.

responsibilities that are legally binding

Individuals and businesses become ‘legal persons.’

possessing specific rights and responsibilities

It is critical to have a legal personality.

EACH WITH A DIFFERENT LEGAL

PERSONALITY

The extent and nature of the law are determined by the legislation.

personality

The current situation

determinant of your abilities and

obligations

capability

connect a person’s status to

certain rights and responsibilities

INTERNATIONAL LEGAL PERSONALITY

LAW

A variety of factors must be investigated.

International celebrity =

Participation + some sense of community

acceptance.

Participants from a wide range of backgrounds:

a state

Organizations Internationales

Organizations at the regional level

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)

Companies that are publicly traded

private corporations

Individuals are

STATES

the most important legal individuals

keep the primary emphasis for

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