INTERNATIONAL LAW

THE CONCEPT OF STATE

 CONCEPT MANNER OF ITS CREATION RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBLITIES EXISTENCE AND EXTINCTION

STATE
Group of people living together in a definite territory under an independent government organized for political ends and capable of entering into international relations.

STATE DISTINGUISHED FROM NATION

A state is a political concept, while nation is an ethnic concept. A nation is a group of people bound together by certain characteristics such as common social origin, language, customs & traditions. A state is not subject to external control while a nation may or may not be independent of external control.

Elements of State
PEOPLE TERRITORY GOVERNMENT SOVEREIGNTY

PEOPLE
People as an element of the state refers to the human beings living within its territory. They should be of both sexes and sufficient in number to maintain and perpetuate themselves.

VATICAN

The smallest state in point of population is Vatican. Over 800 citizens, mainly clerics and some Swiss guards, ruled by the Pope.

TERRITORY
Territory is the fixed portion of the surface of the earth in which people of the state reside. A defined territory is necessary for jurisdictional reasons and in order to provide for the needs of the inhabitants.
Philppines has a total land area of about 115,707 square miles or 299,681 square kilometers.

Territorial map claimed by the Philippines, showing internal waters, territorial sea, international treaty limits and exclusive economic zone.

Current events
The Philippine government has proposed taking the dispute to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) as provided in Part XV of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, but the Chinese government has rejected this, insisting on bilateral discussions.

GOVERNMENT
Government is defined as the agency through which the will of the state is formulated, expressed and realized. Form of government does not matter provided it is able to maintain order within the realm and comply with its responsibilities under the law of nations.

SOVEREIGNTY
Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided.

2 KINDS OF SOVEREIGNTY
INTERNAL
Power of the state to rule within its territory

EXTERNAL
Freedom of the state to carry out its objectives without subjection or control by other states
(often referred to as independence)

The Principle of State Continuity

From the moment of its creation, the state continues as a juristic being notwithstanding changes on its circumstances, provided only that they do not result in loss of any of its essential elements.

Extinction of the State

Nevertheless, it is error to suppose that a state is immortal, for the fact that it is possible for it to be extinguished, or die in a legal sense.
(in every one of these instances, there is radical impairment or actual loss of one or more of the essential elements of the state that will result in its extinction)

Succession of States
State succession takes place when one state assumes the rights and some of the obligations of another because of certain changes in the condition of the latter. Such succession may be either universal or partial.

UNIVERSAL SUCCESSION
When a state is annexed to another state or is totally dismembered or merges with another state to form a new state.
In all of these cases, the international personality of the former state is completely absorbed by the successor

PARTIAL SUCCESSION
Takes place when a portion of the territory of a state secedes or is ceded to another or when an independent state becomes a protectorate or when a dependent state acquires full sovereignty.

CONSEQUENCES OF STATE SUCCESSION

Upon a change of sovereignty as a result of state succession, the allegiance of the inhabitants of the predecessor state in the territory affected is transferred to the successor state. Usually, they are also naturalized, as when the Philippine citizenship was conferred on the inhabitants in general under a treaty between U.S and SPAIN.

Succession of Governments
Where on government replaces another either peacefully or by violent methods. In both instances, the integrity of the state is not affected; the state continues as the same international person except only that its lawful representative is changed.

END
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