8/7/2019 Following the Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of states which was a treaty signed at Montevideo

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Following the Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of states which was a treaty signedat 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 astate 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, therequirement 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 orotherwise. 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 inhabitantshas 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 limitednumber 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 beexercised in a given territory.

Territory is a geographical area that is owned and controlled by a government or country toexercise such state sovereignty.

Therefore, most of legal professors give and conclude the definition of the territory that territoryclearly 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 thisterritory.

It is required that the State must consist of a certain coherent territory effectively governed andthe 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 asMonaco (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 reasonfor 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 bedivided 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 befound in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal

8/7/2019 Following the Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of states which was a treaty signed at Montevideo

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explanation can be provided. The definition of the Sovereignty is quite similar to theIndependence and they mostly used along together.