International Law

1
International Law

• The State

2
The State Legal and Political Definitions

• The State is an entity of International Law that
  possesses
  
• 1) a permanent population
• 2) a defined territory
• 3) a government
• 4) the capacity to enter into relations with
  other states.
  
•     

3
Nation

• A Nation is a term focusing on those peoples
  living within the State In this case, the
  association of peoples based on a shared
  religion, culture, history, language or other
  features. When we look at Israel for instance, we
  will see one State, but two nations.

4
The Nation State and Within

• A Nation-State will depict a sovereign entity
  that has within it, one or a group of citizens
  that share common features. Italy, we know is a
  nation state where its population speaks Italian,
  shares a culture and has great food
• The Government is the entity in International Law
  responsible for engaging the State in
  international relations. The government has the
  legal capacity to exercise sovereignty.
•        
• The Sovereign refers to a State or nation as in
  Sovereign Nation. However, historically, it
  depicts the nature of state-civil society
  relations, and the territory within which this
  relationship exists. To be a Sovereign in essence
  means to exclusively rule over a people and a
  territory.

5
Country, Community and People..

• Country is a term which legally, depicts the
  geographic or territorial elements of the State,
  with its borders.
  
• The term Community is also legal Here people
  are joined together based on common variables
  that distinguishes them from others and is based
  on linkages of race, religion, culture,
  tradition the African-American community, the
  Jewish Community, the Italian Community, the
  Muslim Community
• The People here refers to the permanently
  residing population of a legal entity. The people
  of the United States, etc .
  

6
The Legal Personality of the State

• The legal personality of the state is the
  recognition that States are dominant entities in
  the international system that have (in and of
  themselves)
• law-making power,
• the legal ability to enter into treaties,
• bilateral, multilateral agreements,
• can declare war on other nations or can terminate
  wars with other nations.
  
• States can punish individuals and extradite them.
  The only way this legal personality could be
  removed is by having a higher power within the
  international system, such as a world government
  that would and could, supercede the States
  dominance within the international system.

7
Problems with Definition

• The difficulty is defining Statehood in a neat,
  concise way
  
• the breakup of Yugoslavia once the Soviet Union
  was dismantled created conflict and war over
  boundaries and territory
  
• The issue of Palestine until 1993 and the Oslo
  Accords and after the problem arises as to the
  issue of state-hood
  
• There has also been the issue of de facto
  control over other States. A contemporary example
  of this was Nazi Germanys expansion in Europe
  and its claim of control over other national
  territories.

8
The Simple Explanation

• This is simplified by returning to the initial
  definition of the state a person of
  International Law that possesses
  
• 1) a permanent population
• 2) a defined territory
• 3) a government
• 4) the capacity to enter into relations with
  other states.
  

9
Permanent Population and Defined Territory

• Permanent Population
• This category is the least important since there
  is no specific number of people required to form
  a permanent population. In fact, nationality
  status does not have to be granted in order to
  fit into the criteria of population.
• Defined Territory is perhaps more important when
  considering statehood problematic when claims to
  territory are made by separate nationalities
  within a state.
• The most well known dispute is that in
  Israel.Even though Israel expanded its territory
  beyond that partitioned by the UN in 1947,
  Statehood was given to Israel. (See Slomanson,
  p.60)

10
Governance

• Government Component While this appears obvious
  and logical, it isnt always so. Sometimes,
  overlapping governance complicates the States
  status.
• For instance - within the same nation, war or
  conflict has created separate entities operating
  in different regions of the same State. Each
  claims legitimacy over the entire territory. Some
  examples include, North and South Korea/ North
  and South Vietnam of the 1960s and 1970s/ East
  and West Germany of the Cold War era, etc.
• In order to possess a legitimate claim to
  governance, a government must govern that is,
  maintain political order within the State. Any
  evidence of anarchy or a situation where a State
  was engaged in extraterritorial disputes or civil
  war would cancel out the legitimacy of the state
  per se.

11
Foreign or International Relations

• The most decisive criterion for statehood is the
  capacity to enter into international relations
  this distinguishes it from non-national entities,
  or non-federal states- only the national state
  has the right to engage in foreign relations.

12
The Changing Structure of the Community of States

• The Berlin Conferenceinternational laws emerged
  out of the interests of mainly Colonial powers of
  Europe.
  
• Slavery was abolished but for economic interests
  in Africa
  
• . Post war developments continued to change the
  nature of the international structure.
  
• The creation of the UN by original 50 members
  established an international community there
  are now 189 members.
  
• The decolonization of Africa and Asia between the
  1950s and 1970s created a new group of
  nation-states in the international arena.

13

• The international structure was now one that was
  extremely diverse, politically, ideologically,
  economically, and culturally.
  
• Because decolonization did not improve the
  economic status of the newly independent
  countries, several nations in the UN found
  themselves pushing international policy such as
  international measures for creating more equal
  distribution of resources
• In the UN Law of the Sea Treaty negotiations
  which took place between 1974 and 1982, the less
  developed nations called for the equitable
  sharing of financial and other economic benefits
  derived from an area encompassing about 90
  percent of the natural resources of the oceans.

14

• None of the economically powerful and seafaring
  nations ratified the treaty.
  
• Under traditional international law, wealthier
  nations were not required to share their wealth
  or technology with less developed nations.       
  
• In the 1970s a groups of largely underdeveloped
  nations calling themselves the G-77/G-120
  proposed an NIEO, called the Declaration on the
  Establishment of a New International Economic
  Order and the Charter of Economic Rights and
  Duties of States.

15
NIEO

• Here, several protective elements were included
  in the Declaration.
  
• MNCs were to be regulated and supervised to
  ensure the national sovereignty of the host
  countries, and secondly, the whole international
  community would provide assistance to the less
  developed nations, no strings attached
  politically or militarily.