Presentación formas básica

Constanza Vázquez GonzálezDerecho Internacional PúblicoProfesor:SAÚL MAGAÑA bALLESTEROSStates: Powers and Authority lecture

Elements of the State

The conditions of statehood are accepted as being set out in Art 1 of the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States of 1933:“The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: (a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory;(c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the otherstates.”

PERMANENT POPULATION

• It refers to the concentration of people within a territory.

• Population can vary in size and demographics.

• It is necessary to carry out the tasks that keep the State´s operation.

• The UN has no particular regard for the size of the population of a new member.

It is axiomatic that a State must have some territory, but the amount doesn´t seem to be important.The Montevideo Convention requires a “defined” territory, but there is no requirement in the practice of States that the borders be definitively settled.

DEFINED TERRITORY

On borders, the ICJ has said that “there is no rule that the land frontiers of a State must be fully delimited and defined, and often in various places and for long periods they are not”: North Sea Continental Shelf Cases (1969).

GOVERNMENT

• The precise form of that political structure is not important.

• In Opinion No 1 (1992), the Badinter Arbitration Commission thought that the “the form of internal political organisation and the constitutional provisions” were not as important as “the government’s sway over the population and the territory”.

• One of the goals of the UN. The General Assembly’s Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples of 1960 provides in para 2:

“All peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.”

It requires independent action on the international plane – and is therefore related to the question of recognition. To satisfy the conditions of statehood, aState must be able to interact with other States, and an entity that cannot interact with other States because these other States will not interactwith it is not a State.

CAPACITY TO ENTER RELATIONS WITH OTHER STATES

Recognition is important internationally in establishing relations between international actors and municipally in conferring rightson the recognized Government.

Power and Authorities:SOVEREIGNTY

In its internal aspect, sovereignty encompassesboth dominium and imperium. a) Dominium is the ultimate ownership of all the land territory enclosed within a State’s boundaries.b)Imperium is the supreme authority of the Government of aState to make and enforce laws.In its external aspect, described by Huber as “a principle of international law”, sovereignty comprises independence of action and equality with other States.Limitation=A State enjoys its external sovereignty subject to the rules of international law

JURISDICTION

In normal parlance, jurisdiction means legal authority. As an aspect of territorial sovereignty, jurisdiction includes the legislative power (to prescribe or proscribe conduct by legislation) and the enforcement power (to compel obedience to the laws of conduct through courts).To obviate the risk of that person being subjected to a second prosecution for the same offence in another State with jurisdiction, most States have in place, and international human rights law acknowledges, a prohibition on double jeopardy.

IMPORTANCE OF ELEMENTS OF THE STATES: How do you think that those elements should change in order to have a better government in the future?

I believe that these elements are necessary for the effective functioning of each state. They need each other to become a recognized unit within and beyond.It seems to me that the deterioration of one directly impacts the other, as they are in direct proportion to each other.What needs to change in order to have a better government is the population. The root of the problem is not the form of government, but the people who come to power to institute it.I believe that when the social structure is damaged, it is reflected in the decadence of political quality, and therefore, in the conditions that are propitiated to take care of this structure.Let us aim for healthy societies. Strengthen the institutions that care for them, and ensure access to education for all. The environment in which the individual develops must be taken care of, for that is where the rulers are made, and more importantly, the people who elect them.

• Grant, J. (2014). International law essentials. En Edinburgh University Press eBooks. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780748698400

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