Legal Personality- States and International Organsisations - States as subject of International Law - IL Gleider H. The criteria for statehood

4 important questions on Legal Personality- States and International Organsisations - States as subject of International Law - IL Gleider H. The criteria for statehood

Article 1 of the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, listing four criteria for statehood. It provides that a ‘state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications?

  1. a permanent population;
  2. defined territory
  3. government; and
  4. the capacity to enter into relations with other states.

Is there a minimum of a population of inhabitants that a state requires?

There is no minimum requirement for population, as is demonstrated by a number of tiny States. The population need not inhabit the territory constancy (sahara).

Is the territorial element crucial for a state?

The territorial element is crucial: without it, a State cannot exercise any meaningful control over a sustained period of time.
It is true that international Iaw tolerates a few exceptions to this: a prominent historical example was the recognition by the Allies of ‘Governments in Exile’ during the Second World War, where the exiled governments of Poland, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Yugoslavia, and Greece continued to act on behalf of their States despite occupation by Nazi Germany.
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A few of the proposed criteria for the creation of new States will be considered. Which criteria?

  1. Respect for democracy, the rule of law, and human rights
  2. Self-determination. Self-determination is a difficult concept to define, and raises basic questions as to what constitutes a sufficiently coherent group to demand exercise of the right (eg people, a nation, a colonized population, a national minority); it is linked intimately to complex theories of political organization and nationalism.

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