RECOGNITION
A. DEFINITION
According to Abad Santos:
“The acknowledgment of the fact which had been previously uncertain. The acknowledgement
may relate to the existence of a new state, a new government or a belligerent community.”
According to Paras:
“Recognition is the act which gives to a political entity international status as a state.
Recognition therefore has a "constitutive" effect, for it is only through recognition that a state
becomes an International Person Subject of International Law.”
B. SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT
1.) Constitutive School
- the act which gives to a political entity international status as a State; it is only through
recognition that a State becomes an International Person and a subject of international
law, thus, recognition is a legal matter.
2.) Declaratory School
- merely an act that declares as a fact something that has been uncertain.
- it simply manifests the recognizing State’s readiness to accept the normal consequences
of the fact of Statehood.
C. KINDS OF RECOGNITION
1.) As to object: recognition may be accorded a, State, a Government, or a belligerent
community.
2.) As to plenitude: may either be de jure or de facto.
3.) As to form: express or implied.
4.) As to States participating: it may be individual or collective.
D. RECOGNITION OF STATES
I. Two States recognizing each other means that both recognize the capacity of each other to
exercise all the rights belonging to Statehood.
II. Recognition: the act of acknowledging the capacity of an entity to exercise rights belonging to
statehood.
III. Views in recognition
a. Declaratory Theory
- Recognition is merely “declaratory” of the existence of the State and that it being a state
depends upon its possession of the required elements and not upon recognition.
b. Constitutive Theory
- Recognition constitutes a state, that is, it is what makes a state and confers legal
personality on the entity.
IV. Recognition today:
a.) all members of the UN must treat the new
member as an equal partner in all matters relating to the application of the UN charter, and to
this extent, being admitted to membership in the UN, means that the newcomer is at least
partially recognized. All states are, of course, free to decide whether to proceed to full
recognition or to limit their relations with the new member to the minimum.
b.) The UN may deny recognition to a new State or entity claiming to be a State.
Examples:
a. Transkei: Sham designed to perpetuate the domination of the white minority. UN urged all
member-States to deny recognition
b. Southern Rhodesia: UN Security Council condemned the usurpation of power and declaration
of independence of Southern Rhodesia by a white racist minority and called upon all States not
to recognized the new State.
E. RECOGNITION OF GOVERNMENTS
Requirements:
1. The Government must be effective and stable
- it must be in possession of the machinery of the state and without substantial resistance
to its authority.
2. The Government must be effective must show willingness and ability to discharge
international obligations.
Recognition De Facto & De Jure:
De Facto: When in the view of the recognizing state, the new government, although actually
independent and wielding effective power in the territory under its control has not acquired
sufficient stability or does not yet offer prospect of complying with the above mentioned
requirements of recognition. (merely provisional)
De Jure: When there is no specification as to the kind of recognition. It amounts to the
acknowledgement of the presence of the minimal requirements of government.
E. RECOGNITION OF BELLIGERENCY AND INSURGENCY
It is the formal acknowledgment by a third party of the existence of a state of war between the
central government and a portion of that state.
- Belligerency exists when a sizeable portion of the territory of a state is under the effective
control of an insurgent community which is seeking to establish a separate government.
- the insurgents are in de facto control of a portion of the territory and population, have a political
organization, are able to maintain such control, and conduct themselves according to the laws
of war.
Conditions for Recognition of Belligerency:
1. There should be an organized civil government;
2. Rebels occupy a substantial portion of the territory;
3. Conflict is serious and outcome is uncertain;
4. Rebels are willing to observe the laws of war;
NOTE: Absence of one means the state is merely in the state of insurgency
Effects of Recognition of Belligerency:
1. Responsibility for acts of rebels resulting to injury to nationals of recognizing state shall be
shifted to the rebel government;
2. The recognizing state shall observe laws or customs of war in conducting hostilities;
3. Third states recognizing belligerency should maintain neutrality.
