Statehood Is a Matter of Politics, Not of Law
‘Statehood is a matter of politics, not of law.’
It is argued that statehood is attained after the fulfillment of certain prerequisites or “criteria”. Nevertheless, the application of criteria is not without problems: “The multi-criteria nature of concept, the tangled web of historically-specific pathways of state development, and differences in state forms have all contributed to substantial theoretical difficulties in reaching any wide agreement about how to define ‘the state’” (Dunleavy, Patrick,2007) What instruments have attempted to define the idea of the state? Max Weber's classic definition remains to be highly influential. His definition claims that a state is an organization which “(successfully) claims a monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory”. The Montevideo Convention is another source that is often cited as a guide in determining statehood. According to the Convention, a state should harbour a defined territory, a permanent population, and a government with the capacity to enter into relations with other states. So, is meeting these preconditions enough to be considered as a state, or does being recognized as a state define statehood? Malanczuk argues the following: “recognition is one of the most difficult topics in international law. It is a confusing mixture of politics, and international law the legal and political elements cannot be disentangled; when granting or withholding recognition, states are influenced more by political than by legal considerations, but their acts do have legal consequences. Herein, statehood becomes politically charged, and the influence of power may have a definitive effect on an entity's legal status as a state or not.
The constitutive theory on statehood argues that recognition constitutes state existence, that is, an entity is not a state before it is recognized as such. Contrastingly, the declaratory theory argues that a state exists prior to recognition; the state's de facto
It is argued that statehood is attained after the fulfillment of certain prerequisites or “criteria”. Nevertheless, the application of criteria is not without problems: “The multi-criteria nature of concept, the tangled web of historically-specific pathways of state development, and differences in state forms have all contributed to substantial theoretical difficulties in reaching any wide agreement about how to define ‘the state’” (Dunleavy, Patrick,2007) What instruments have attempted to define the idea of the state? Max Weber's classic definition remains to be highly influential. His definition claims that a state is an organization which “(successfully) claims a monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory”. The Montevideo Convention is another source that is often cited as a guide in determining statehood. According to the Convention, a state should harbour a defined territory, a permanent population, and a government with the capacity to enter into relations with other states. So, is meeting these preconditions enough to be considered as a state, or does being recognized as a state define statehood? Malanczuk argues the following: “recognition is one of the most difficult topics in international law. It is a confusing mixture of politics, and international law the legal and political elements cannot be disentangled; when granting or withholding recognition, states are influenced more by political than by legal considerations, but their acts do have legal consequences. Herein, statehood becomes politically charged, and the influence of power may have a definitive effect on an entity's legal status as a state or not.
The constitutive theory on statehood argues that recognition constitutes state existence, that is, an entity is not a state before it is recognized as such. Contrastingly, the declaratory theory argues that a state exists prior to recognition; the state's de facto