SOVEREIGN STATES. CHAPTER II. THEIR ATTRIBUTES AND FORMATION.— OTHER STATES AND COMMUNITIES AFFECTED BY INTER- 12. Definition of a sovereign State.-A sovereign state may be defined in general terms to be a community of persons organized into a body politic and exercising the rights of selfgovernment. 13 Sovereign States. The subjects of international law.Others affected thereby.-Sovereign states are primarily and to a full extent the subjects of international law. Part-sovereign States, communities, corporations, and individuals are, however, affected by the rules of international law and according to the circumstances, are more or less governed by them. 14. Conditions of sovereign States.-A sovereign state to be in full standing as such must have the following characteristics and conditions: First. There must be a normal political community of persons with common laws, customs and habits. Second. There must be a fixed territory within which these persons permanently live. Third. There must be a supreme government controlling all persons and things within the boundaries, and capable of entering into full relations with other states and of making offensive and defensive war and peace. Fourth. The state must be independent of all other states. Fifth. The state must be recognized as a sovereign state by the other sovereign states of the world. It is no longer necessary, as previously stated, for a state to be a Christian state to be entitled to the status of a sovereign state. Turkey and Japan, for instance, are recognized now as sovereign states. A certain elevated standard of civilization is required by the community of sovereign states before entry can be made into that community by another state. This standard has not yet been attained by such countries as China, Persia or Siam. As to other matters Phillimore says, "It is a sound general principle, and one to be laid down at the threshold of the science of which we are treating, that international law has no concern with the form, character or power of the constitution or government of a state; with the religion of its inhabitants, the extent of its domain, or the importance of its position and influence in the commonwealth of nations."1 15. Equality of sovereign States in a legal sense.-Legally, then, all sovereign states within the purview of international law are equal, that is, equal in their rights and in their obligations, equal in their sovereignty and in their independence. It does not follow, of course, that this equality extends to their political influence. The status of the great maritime powers in the world, or of the great powers of Europe upon that continent, or even of the United States of America in American affairs, can be recognized at once as an evidence of political inequality. 16. Colonial possessions.-Vattel, with respect to colonial possessions and dependencies, says, "Whenever the political laws and the treaties have not established distinctions to the contrary, that which we call the territory of a nation includes its colonies." 17. Loss of sovereignty." The sovereignty of a state may be lost in various ways. It may be vanquished by a foreign 1 Phillimore, Int. Law., 3d edn., Vol. 1, p. 81. power and become incorporated into the conquering state as a province or as one of its component parts, or it may voluntarily unite itself with another in such a way that its independent existence as a state will entirely cease. Again, two sovereign states may become incorporated into one, so as to form a new sovereign state in place of the other two whose independent existence as states is entirely destroyed by such incorporation." 2 "Thus the incorporation of the Seven United Provinces and the Austrian Low Countries, by the treaties of Vienna, under the Prince of Orange, as King of the Netherlands, was the union of two distinct sovereignties forming a new sovereign state. By the incorporation of Wales, Scotland and Ireland into Great Britain, and of Normandy and Brittany into France, these incorporated states lost their existence as distinct and substantive political bodies." 18. Recognition of new States.-Cushman K. Davis, in his treatise on International Law, says, "States come into being by conquest, by colonization, by insurrection and by peaceful change of old governments into new forms or by consolidations of several governments into one. When they attain a firm consistency, and an apparent perpetuity is established, they become proper subjects of recognition as states by other governments." 3 19. Modes of recognition of States.-The method of recognition of a new state is varying; it may be by formal declaration, by proclamation, or by treaty. It may also be implied by the sending or receiving of ambassadors or other state agents and giving exequaturs to its consuls. It may first be done by the recognition and salute to the flag of the new state, as France did at Quiberon, with respect to the American flag." 2 Halleck, ed. by Sir S. Baker, Vol. 1, p. 95. 'Davis. C. K., Int. Law, pp. 109-110. 3a Cf. page 37. |