Constructing States in International Community

Abstract

At the beginning of the 20 century there are only 50 states before the 2nd world war. The nascent of each state is one of the major political developments of the 20th century. The integration of a new state in the international community does not take place automatically, but through co-operation; that is, by individual and collective recognition on the part of the already existing states, which has became a sources of conflicts in the international arena. The traditional principles of public International law regarding recognition have been overridden by the new practices of recognition of states by Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union since 1991. The traditional mode of creation of state focuses on the capability of the new state to govern its population & territory and interaction with the existing state. The focus has shifted has been indicated by the collapse of Soviet Union and the creation of smaller state from their constituent parts. By abandoning the traditional mode of recognition of state these new states likely to lack the capacity to fulfill the commitments made by the international community for the recognition of the state like to protect the human rights, govern themselves democratically and promote international peace and security. Article 1 of the Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of States provides the criteria of the statehood. According the Convention a state should have a) a permanent population b) a defined territory c) government and d) capacity to enter into relations with other states.Recognition is one of the most difficult and complicated topics in international law. It is complicated because it involves important political results and legal effects both in international and municipal law. Thus this paper will focus on how and on what basis recognition of state is done.