Elements of State

4 ELEMENTS OF STATE | by Phatsakone Chanhchom on March 9th, 20100 COMMENTSShare | Following the Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of states which was a treaty signed at Montevideo, Uruguay, on December 26th, 1933.The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: (a) a permanent population (people); (b) a defined territory; (c) government (political authority); and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other states (diplomat recognition or sovereignty).A PERMANENT POPULATIONA state is an organization of human beings living together as a community. The population of a state comprises all individuals who, in principle, inhabit the territory in a permanent way. It may consist of nationals and foreigners. As has repeatedly been pointed out by doctrine, the requirement of a population is not necessarily an equivalent of the requirement of nationality. The population of a state need not be completely homogeneous in culture, language, race or otherwise. Indeed, it is even rare, except for Micro-States, to find a State with a homogeneous people. International law does not require a minimum number of inhabitants constituting a State. The smallest number of nationals in a Micro-State can be found in Nauru and in Monaco. This figure can be even lower if we take into account that theoretically Pitcairn with 52 inhabitants has the right to opt for statehood by virtue of its right to self-determination. No reservations have been made by the international community with respect to statehood because of the limited number of nationals of Micro-States, even if the nationals were outnumbered by foreign residents.A DEFINED TERRITORYThe functions of a State, a political and legal community of human beings, must first of all be exercised in a given territory.Territory is a geographical area that is owned and controlled by a government or country to exercise such state sovereignty.Therefore, most of legal professors give and