Principles of Public International Law: Coursework Assignment

Question: “Law will never really play an effective part in international relations until it can annex to its own sphere some of the matters which at present lie within the domestic jurisdiction of the several states.” Discuss

‘The principles and regulations established in a community by some authority and applicable to its people, whether in the form of legislation or of custom and policies recognised’.

The aforementioned is a definition of law as defined by the American Heritage dictionary of the English Language.

If we apply this definition of community in its strictest sense it becomes increasingly difficult to subscribe to the …show more content…

States have continued to recognize governments which have lost power, including Mexican recognition of the Spanish republican regime of 1977, and recognition of the Chinese Nationalist regime by all of the major Western powers until the 1970s. States have refused to recognize new governments even when they have established effective control, such as the British refusal to recognize the July monarch in France until 1832, the US refusal to recognise the Soviet regime until 1934.” (Krasner, pg 15)

The recognition of states is definitely an area in which the law (as prescribed by the Montevideo Convention and more recently the EU, which has almost identical tenets concerning the recognition of states) has proved ineffective in international relations precisely because of the political agendas and consequently domestic jurisdiction of the several states which reflect the political climate in which they operate.

States attempt to hold on to this type of sovereignty because it affords them clout and validation in a global society in which interdependence is not just an ideal but a tool for survival, at the very least and a necessary aid to prosperity at the very most. The point here is not that nonrecognition brings with it a form of absolute isolation which renders the unrecognised state permanently barred from international commerce and diplomatic relations. What is of paramount importance, however, is the fact that