IS 26 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Signify, De Jure

• School: Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan
• Department: Social Sciences
• Course: IS 26

Document Summary

Even in an entity has already acquired the elements of international personality, it is not for this reason alone automatically entitled to membership in the family of nations. Its admission thereto is dependent on the acknowledgement of its status by those already within the fold and their willingness to enter into relations with it as a subject of international law. The extent of its membership in the international community is, therefore, dependent on the number of states prepared to admit it. Recognition is not a criterion for statehood. Provided that the four requisites of statehood concur, and that sovereignty was not gained by military force, it is a state, without the need for other states" recognition. Recognition is merely declaratory of the existence of a state. The recognizing state merely accepts an already existing situation. The act of recognition is political rather than legal. This is the prevailing view today: constitutive.