4 Elements of State

by Phatsakone Chanhchom on March 9th, 2010

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 Population
A 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 Territory
The 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 conclude the definition of
the territory that territory clearly comprises and refers to land territory
which belongs to state and individuals, internal waters and territorial
sea (straits) which state claims for sovereignty, and the airspace
above this territory.
It is required that the State must consist of a certain coherent
territory effectively governed and the territory of a State need not be
exactly fixed by definite frontiers.
A defined geographical area the existence of Micro-State with
minimum land territory such as Monaco (1.95 square kilometer), and
the Vatican City (0.44 square kilometer) leads to the conclusion that
no minimum size is required for the territory, as this element was
never a reason for denying statehood.
Government
The government is the executive branch of the state and has the role
to administer the state uniformly in the following aspects: political,
economic, social, cultural, use of natural resources, environmental
protection, national defense and security, and foreign affairs.
Form of state is defined depending on the constitution drafted,
generally structure of state can be divided into: unitary state and
federal state, this probably affects the government in exercising limit
on its power.
Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority
over a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that
rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be
provided. The definition of the Sovereignty is quite similar to the
Independence and they mostly used along together.