Personality Flashcards
Ian Brownlie’s definition of the subject of IL
An entity of the type recognised by customary law as capable of having these capacities (rights and duties and having the capacity to maintain its rights by bringing international claims) is a legal person
Art 1 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States 1933
Requirements for a State:
- A permanent population
- A defined territory
- Government
- Capacity to enter into relations with other States
Deutsche Continental Gas-Gesellshaft v Polish State 1929 on State territory
It is enough to say that (a State’s) territory has a sufficient consistency, even though its boundaries have not yet been accurately defined
Aaland Islands Case 1920 on government
A stable political organization… the public authorities had become strong enough to assert themselves throughout the territories of the state without the assistance of foreign troops
Austro-German Customs Union Case 1931 on independence
Independence means autonomy in conducting economic affairs
Self-determination
A rule of CIL that people have the right to govern themselves (Western Sahara 1975)
The degree of power of international organisations
International organisations have legal personality, however they can only act within the powers entrusted to them by the State
Republic of Somalia v Woodhouse Drake and Carey 1992 criteria of independence (4)
- A constitutional government of the State
- Degree, nature and stability of administrative control
- Dealings with the State
- Extent of international recognition
Crawford’s five exclusive and general characteristics of States
- States have plenary competence to perform acts in the international sphere
- States are exclusively competent with respect to their internal affairs
- States are not subject to international process without their consent
- States are regarded in international law as equal, it is a formal principle
- States are entitled to benefit from the Lotus presumption, especially that any derogation from the previous principles must be clearly established
Uti possidetis
A principle of IL which provides that newly formed sovereign States should have the same borders that their preceding dependent area had before their independence
Declaratory theory of recognition
Distinguishes between statehood as a matter of legal personality with objective characteristics and recognition as a discretionary exercise of the power of an individual State
Constitutive theory of recognition
It is the act of recognition which establishes the legal existence of the recognised entity, in each case only with respect to the recognising State
Advantage of declaratory over constitutive
It has an objective element to it
