State Flashcards
is a community of persons more or less numerous,
permanently occupying a definite portion of territory, having a
government to which the great majority of people render obedience
and enjoys freedom or sovereignty from external control.
A State
Elements of a state
People, territory, government, sovereignty
– the definite portion of the earth over which the state’s jurisdiction extends.
Territory
– the agency through which the will of the state is enforced.
Government
– is the supreme, absolute and uncontrollable power by which an independent state is governed.
Sovereignty
The state is of divine creation, and the rulers were ordained by God to rule. Dictators throughout history used this theory to justify their tyrannical rule.
Divine Right Theory.
The state was created when some strong warrior imposed his will on the other members of the community. He protects them; they support him.
Force or Necessity Theory.
The state was formed through the enlargement of the family.
Paternalistic Theory.
The state was created when people entered into a voluntary agreement to live together (the social phase) and to establish a government (the political phase).
Social Contract Theory.
encourages a revolution if it would result to the betterment of the state.
Social Contract Theory.
Difference between state and nation
- A state is a political concept, while a nation is an ethnic concept.
- A state can’t exist without people; a nation can exist stateless.
- A nation could be living in many states; A State can be composed of many nations.
refers to a people existing in an organized society, inhabiting a portion of the earth, speaking the same language, having the same customs, possessing the same historic continuity and distinguished from other groups by their racial origins and characteristics, and generally living under one government and sovereignty.
Nation
properly refers to a state whose territorial extent coincides with that occupied by a distinct nation or people, or at least, whose population shares a general sense of cohesion and adherence to a set of common values.
Nation-state
- the right of a state to use force against an aggressor state when and to the extent it appears to it and it reasonably believes that such conduct is necessary to defend itself from such aggressor’s imminent or act of unlawful force .
Right of existence and self defense
It is the right of a state to be free from dependence, dictation, subjection, control and intervention of another state or exterior power.
Right of Independence
- based on the doctrine that states are equal as international persons regardless of differences in size, population, power, degree of civilization etc.
Right of Equality
- it is the right of a state to enter into diplomatic relations with other states by receiving and sending diplomatic representatives.
Right of legation
- it is the right of a state to enter into diplomatic relations with other states by receiving and sending diplomatic representatives.
Right of legation
fullest and most superior right ofpropertyin land.
Domain
refers to the power of a state to affect persons, property, and circumstances within its territory.
Jurisdiction
Rights of a state
Right of existence and self defense
Right of Independence
Right of Equality
Right of legation
The Right of Property and Domain
The Right to Acquire Territory and Increase of Domain
The Right of Jurisdiction
Modes of acquiring territory
Discovery
Occupation
Prescription
Cession
Conquest
Accretion
Reclamation
oldest method of acquiring title to territory;
Discovery
the intentional acquisition by a state over a territory which at the time of claim not under the sovereignty of any state.
Occupation
2 requirements for occupation
(1) the territory subject of claim must not be under the sovereignty of any state (terra nullius);
(2) the state must have effectively occupied the territory, that is, the state claiming the territory must have exercised immediate occupation (corpus occupandi) on the territory after it displayed its intention to occupy (animus occupandi).
means continued occupation over a long period of time by one state of territory actually and originally belonging to another state.
Prescription
4 requirements for prescription
1) the possession must be exercised in the form of actual exercise of sovereign authority;
2) the possession must be for a long period of time;
3) the possession must be public; and
4) the possession must be peaceful and uninterrupted.
the transfer of territory usually by treaty from one state to another.
Cession
acquiring territory by the use of force. The practice before was after conquest, the conqueror annexed the conquered territory to his state.
Conquest
is the attainment of sovereignty over new land due to slow movement of natural forces. Example of this is the gradual movement of a river bed.
Accretion
the natural forces happened suddenly, like creation of an island in territorial waters due to volcanic eruption, it is referred as
avulsion
is the process of creating new land from oceans, riverbeds, or lake beds.
Reclamation
Factors that affect state power
- Area & location
- Climate and natural resources
- Size and quality of population
- Events in history
- Institutions and policies
- alliances and other factors such as international prestige, military strength, etc.
