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Recognition of States: Some Reflections on Doctrine and Practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2017

Herbert W. Briggs
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Abstract

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Type
Editorial Comment
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 43 , Issue 1 , January 1949 , pp. 113 - 121
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1949

References

1 Stimson, Henry L., Secretary of State, Address before the Council on Foreign Relations, Feb. 6, 1931 Google Scholar. Department of State, Latin American Series, No. 4, p. 6.

2 See, for example, H. Lauterpacht, Eeeognition in International Law (Cambridge University, 1947); Kunz, Josef L., Die Anerkennung der Staaten und Regierungen im Völkerrecht (1928)Google Scholar; Sir John Fischer Williams, “La Doctrine de la Reconnaissance en Droit International et ses Développements Recents,” 44 Académie de Droit International, Recueil des Cours (1933), pp. 203–314; idem, “Some Thoughts on the Doctrine of Recognition in International Law,” 47 Harvard Law Review (1933–34), pp. 776–794; Hans Kelsen, “Recognition in International Law: Theoretical Observations,” this Journal, Vol. 35 (1941), pp. 605–617, with comment by Philip Marshall Brown, ibid., Vol. 36 (1942), p. 106, and Edwin M. Borchard, ibid., p. 108; Annuaire de I’Institut de Droit International, Paris, 1934, pp. 302–357 (Philip Marshall Brown, Rapporteur) and Brussels, 1936, I, pp. 233–245, II , pp. 175–255, 300–305 (for English translation of resolutions adopted, see this Journal, Supp., Vol. 30 (1936), p. 185); Arnold Eaestad, “La Reconnaissance Internationale des Nouveaux États et des Nouveaux Gouvernements,” Revue de Droit International et de Législation Comparie (3rd. Ser.), Vol. 17 (1936), pp. 257–313; Louis L. Jaffe, Judicial Aspects of Foreign Relations, In Particular of the Recognition of Foreign Powers (1933), Ch. II ; Dionisio Anzilotti, Cours de Droit International (trad. Gidel, 1929), Vol. I, pp. 159–177; Le Normand, La Reconnaissance Internationale et ses Diverses Applications (1899).

3 Op. cit., p. 7 ff.

4 Op. cit., p. 160 ff.

5 Loo. cit., p. 606 ff.

6 See Lauterpacht, op. cit., p. 6; Kelsen, loc. cit., p. 607.

7 Although both Lauterpacht, op. cit., p. 26 ff., and Kelsen, loc. cit., p. 607 ff., assert that international law determines the requirements of statehood, Lauterpacht asserts and Kelsen denies (loc. cit., p. 609 ff.) the duty to recognize a state which fulfills these requirements.

8 Compare Cavaré, Louis , “La Reconnaissance de l’Mat et le Mandchoukouo,” Revue Générale de Droit International Public, Vol. 42 (1935), pp. 5–99 Google Scholar.

9 Department of State, Treaties and Other International Acts Series, No. 1568.

10 Cf. Republie of China v. Merchant’s Fire Assurance Corporation of New York (1929), 30 Fed. 2d. 278.

11 Compare Wulfsohn v. Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republie (1923), 234 N. Y. 372: “Whether or not a government exists, clothed with the power to enforce its authority within its own territory, obeyed by the people over whom it rules, capable of performing the duties and fulfilling the obligations of an independent power, able to enforce its claims by military force, is a fact, not a theory. For it recognition does not create the state, although it may be desirable.”

12 Op. cit., pp. 24, 45 ff.

13 Jaffe, Louis L., Judicial Aspects of Foreign Relations, I n Particular of the Recognition of Foreign Powers (Harvard University, 1933), pp. 96, 121 Google Scholar.

14 See illustrative materials, sometimes under the rubric “Acts Falling Short of Recognition,” in Moore, Digest of International Law, “Vol. I, p. 206 ff.; Hackworth, Digest of International Law, Vol. I , p. 327 ff.; H. A. Smith, Great Britain and the Law of Nations, Vol. I (1932), pp. 115 ff., 190; Lauterpacht, op. cit., p. 369 ff.

15 Op. cit., p. 54.

16 See, for example, the agreement relating to most-favored-nation treatment and other matters concluded by the United States and Albania by exchange of notes at Tirana, June 23 and 25, 1922, prior to, and as a condition of, United States recognition of Albania as a state on July 28, 1922. U. S. Foreign Relations, 1922, Vol. I , pp. 603–604; ibid., 1925, Vol. I, pp. 511–512.

17 Op. cit., pp. 53–54.

18 U. S. Foreign Relations, 1922, Vol. I, p. 599; ibid., 1925, Vol. I, pp. 511–514.

19 Op. cit., p. 78.

20 As set forth particularly in Moore, op. tit., Vol. I, p. 77 ff.; Hackworth, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 195 ff.; H. A. Smith, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 77 ff.; M. W. Graham, The Diplomatic Recognition of the Border States: I, Finland; II, Estonia; III, Latvia; Lauterpacht, op. cit., pp. 12 ff., 26–37; Fontes Juris Gentium, Ser. B, Ser. 1, Tom. 1, Digest of the Diplomatic Correspondence of the European States, 1856–1871, p. 130 ff., and ibid., Tom. 2, 1871–1878, p. 78 ff.; U. S. Foreign Relations, passim.

21 See Brown, Philip Marshall, ‘ ‘ The Recognition of Israel,’’ this Journal, Vol. 42 (1948), pp. 620–627 Google Scholar.

22 “The Effects of Recognition,” this Journal, Vol. 36 (1942), p. 106.

23 Compare J. L. Brierly, The Law of Nations (3rd ed., 1942), p. 100: “The primary function of recognition is formally to acknowledge -as a fact something which has hitherto been uncertain, namely, the independence of the state recognized, and to declare the recognizing state’s readiness to accept the normal consequences of that fact… .”

24 Lauterpacht, op. cit., p. 44. Compare Kelsen, loc. cit., p. 608: “Before recognition, the unrecognized community does not legally exist vis-à-vis the recognizing state.”

25 See P. L. Bushe-Fox, “The Court of Chancery and Recognition, 1804–31,” British Year Book of International Law, 1931, p. 63; Bushe-Fox, “Unrecognized States: Cases in the Admiralty and Common Law Courts, 1805–26,” ibid., 1932, p. 39; A. B. Lyons, “The Conclusiveness of the Foreign Office Certificate,” ibid., 1946, pp. 240, 245 ff.; Jaffe, op. cit., passim; E. D. Dickinson, “The Unrecognized Government or State in English and American Law,” 22 Michigan Law Review (1923), pp. 29, 118. For the decision of an international tribunal affirming the declaratory nature of recognition, see Deutsche Continental Gas-Gesellschaft v. Polish State, decided Aug. 1, 1929, by the German-Polish Mixed Arbitral Tribunal, Recueil des Decisions des Tribunaux Arbitraux Mixtes, Vol. IX, pp. 336, 344; see comment thereon by Hans Herz, “Le Probléme de la Naissance de l’Éat et la Décision … du J Aoút 1929,” Revue de Droit International et de Legislation Comparée (3rd ser.), Vol. 17 (1936), p. 564.

28 See, for example, collective recognition of Greece, 1830, British and Foreign State Papers, Vol. XVII, p. 191; of Belgium, 1831, ibid., Vol. XVIII, pp. 645, 723 ff.; of Montenegro, Serbia and Roumania, 1878, ibid., Vol. LXIX, pp. 758, 761, 763, 862 ff.; of Albania, 1921, League of Nations Official Journal (2nd Year, 1921), p. 1195, and Gerhard Pink, The Conference of Ambassadors (Paris, 1920–1931), Geneva Studies, Vol. XII, Nos. 4–5 (1942), pp. 106–116, 203 ff.; of Estonia and Latvia, 1921, British and Foreign State Papers, Vol. CXIV, p. 558, and M. W. Graham, op. cit., p. 290 ff. See also British and Foreign State Papers, Vol. CXII, p. 225 ff., Clemenceau to Paderewski, June 24, 1919.

27 Graham, op. cit., pp. 295 ff., 300–301, 372, 375–6; Graham, The League of Nations and the Recognition of States (1933), and the works there cited.

28 The Advisory Opinion of May 28, 1948, of the International Court of Justice on Conditions of Admission of a State to Membership in the United Nations (Charter, Art. 4) (I. C. J. Reports, 1947–1948, p. 57 ff.; this Journal, Vol. 42 (1948), p. 927), while dealing with the criteria of membership in the United Nations, discusses neither the criteria of statehood nor recognition.

29 Op. cit. (1948), pp. 44–51.