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State Recognition - When A New Entity Pretends To Be A State Because It Meets The 3 Criteria For

State recognition occurs when an existing state decides to recognize a new entity as a state if it meets the three criteria of statehood. Recognition is a discretionary and unilateral political act, not an obligation, whereby a state explicitly declares the new entity as a state. While recognition does not create statehood, it consolidates it by establishing a relationship between the recognizing and recognized states. Whether a non- or partially-recognized state is considered a state depends on the perspective - refusing states may deny its political legitimacy but not its factual existence as a state. Recognition is ultimately a relative and subjective political appraisal in the decentralized international system.

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Tricia Montoya
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122 views2 pages

State Recognition - When A New Entity Pretends To Be A State Because It Meets The 3 Criteria For

State recognition occurs when an existing state decides to recognize a new entity as a state if it meets the three criteria of statehood. Recognition is a discretionary and unilateral political act, not an obligation, whereby a state explicitly declares the new entity as a state. While recognition does not create statehood, it consolidates it by establishing a relationship between the recognizing and recognized states. Whether a non- or partially-recognized state is considered a state depends on the perspective - refusing states may deny its political legitimacy but not its factual existence as a state. Recognition is ultimately a relative and subjective political appraisal in the decentralized international system.

Uploaded by

Tricia Montoya
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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State Recognition - When a new entity pretends to be a state because it meets the 3 criteria for

states, other existing states may decide to Recognize it as a State.


 It is used for New States
o Can only be used once in relation to the entity concerned
 It is a Discretionary Act
o There is no obligation or duty to recognize a new state
o It can be done whenever the state recognizing sees it fit
o An established state may condition its recognition on certain political concessions
or commitments by the new state
 It is Explicit and made public by an official declaration
o The word “Recognition” is not always explicitly used
o Contracting a treaty with a state does not necessarily mean nor imply that the 2
states recognize each other
o The ONLY act which entails tacit and mutual recognition is the establishment of
diplomatic relations between the 2 States
 It is a Unilateral act
o The fact that several states may convene in order to determine whether or not to
recognize a new state does NOT make state recognition a collective act
o No collective body is established and entrusted with the power to recognize an
new state
o Admission to the UN does NOT mean that all the member-states recognize the
New State
 In fact, even voting in favor of admission of a new member state does not
tacitly mean recognizing the New State
 Nov 2012, UN General Assembly accorded what is called the “Non-
member Observer State” status to Palestine.
 This status does not require one to be a member of the UN but
nevertheless requires it to be a State
 Even when voting in favor of the same, many states declared that their
vote did not mean that they recognized Palestine as a State (even if the
status requires that it be given only to a State)
 State recognition is usually said to be Declaratory
o It simply declares that the entity being recognized is a State
o However, it does NOT have the effect of creating the state as a factual entity
o It also does NOT constitute its international legal personality
o Simply put, State Recognition has NO specific legal effect
o It is a Political rather than a Juridical act.
o HOWEVER, such an act is important in international relations
 When one state is more recognized by other states, the more it enjoys
national effectivity.
o In order to be recognized, a state should be a new and already existing state.
 Recognition will not make statehood, but it will consolidate statehood.
o It has some constitutive effect in the sense that it establishes a relationship
between the state recognizing the new entity and the recognized entity as a state.
 When a state is recognized by others, and not recognized by some, what is it?
o It DEPENDS.
 Even the states who refuse to recognize an entity as a state will easily
concede that it is and very much so a state. Refusing to recognize the
states is not to deny the factual existence of the entity as a state. But it is a
wat to deny POLITICAL LEGITIMACY.
 Ex. Arab states who refuse to recognize Israel as a state know very
well that Israel is a state and a mighty one.
 When a relationship was formed between the recognizing state and the
recognized state, statehood will exist for the purpose of that relationship.
 Recognition boils down to a relative issue based on subjective appraisals. This is so
because we have a decentralized system of states where each of them is entrusted with
the discretionary power to recognize or not new states.
 Time will only tell if a state’s statehood will be consolidated or not.

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