Nation-state as the model?

April 20th
Contents

1. Independence at stake
2. Contemporary statehood
3. Recognition of independence in reality
1. Independence at stake
Ukraine

Ukraine will remain sovereign and independent. The people

of Ukraine have demonstrated that they will do whatever it
takes to protect their homes, their families, their fellow
citizens, their country — their independence.
(U.S. Department of State, 24 Aug. 2022)
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

Japan seeks to normalize its relations with North Korea, in

accordance with the Japan-DPRK Pyongyang Declaration,
through comprehensively resolving outstanding issues of
concern such as the abductions, nuclear and missile issues
as well as settlement of the unfortunate past.
(Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 3 Oct. 2022)
Republic of China (Taiwan)

Honduras has cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan, the Latin

American country announced on Saturday, saying it
recognises “only one China in the world”.
Honduras is the ninth diplomatic ally that Taipei has lost to
Beijing since pro-independence president Tsai Ing-wen first
took office in May 2016. The move leaves Taiwan
recognised by only 13 sovereign states.
(The Guardian, 26 Mar. 2023)
Taiwan, China, and Japan

China-Japan Joint Communiqué (1972)

2. The Government of Japan recognizes that Government of the
People’s Republic of China as the sole legal Government of China.
3. The Government of the People’s Republic of China reiterates that
Taiwan is an inalienable part of the territory of the People’s Republic
of China. The Government of Japan fully understands and respects
this stand of the Government of the People’s Republic of China, and
it firmly maintains its stand under Article 8 of the Postsdam
Proclamation.
2. Contemporary statehood
The steady increase of independent states

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan)

New states in the “Third World”

(NYU Local)
Quasi-states and empirical statehood

The ex-colonial states have been internationally enfranchised and

possess the same external rights and responsibilities as all other
sovereign states: juridical statehood. At the same time, however,
many have not yet been authorized and empowered domestically and
consequently lack the institutional features of sovereign states as also
defined by classical international law. They disclose limited
empirical statehood: their populations do not enjoy many of the
advantages traditionally associated with independent statehood.
(Robert H. Jackson, Quasi-states, p. 21)
The traditional conditions of statehood

Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States (1933)

[Art.1] The state as a person of international law should possess the
following qualifications:
a. a permanent population;
b. a defined territory;
c. government; and
d. capacity to enter into relations with the other states.
Normative transformation

In short, quasi-states are creatures of changes in the rules of

membership and modes of operation of international society
which were deliberately made to replace the institutions of
European overseas colonialism.
(Robert H. Jackson, Quasi-states, p. 26)
The origin of “self-determination”

“This war had its roots in the disregard of the rights of small
nations and of nationalities which lacked the union and the
force to make good their claim to determine their own
allegiances and their own forms of political life.”
(US President T. Woodrow Wilson, 11 February 1918)
Consolidation of the new norm

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights
[Art. 1] All peoples have the right of self-determination.
By virtue of that right they freely determine their political
status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural
development.
 Should all claims of
independence be recognized?
Theoretical hesitation

It is impossible to believe in sovereign states in the same

unqualified way that Mill believed in sovereign individuals.
International liberalism is more contradictory and
ambivalent than domestic liberalism and its analysis is
consequently more complicated.
(Robert H. Jackson, Quasi-states, p. 29)
Practical difficulties

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday recognized the

independence of two pro-Moscow separatist regions in
eastern Ukraine, fueling fears that the move could provide a
pretext for the Russian military to invade the former Soviet
republic.
(The Mainichi, 22 Feb. 2022)
A referendum in Donetsk and Luhansk

Residents of two regions of eastern Ukraine turned out in significant

numbers Sunday to vote in support of self-rule in a referendum that
threatens to deepen divisions in a country already heading perilously
toward civil war.
The wording of the referendum was vague, asking whether voters
favored self-determination rather than outright independence or
joining Russia. That meant some of those voting yes wanted more
autonomy but not necessarily to split from Ukraine.
(Washington Post, 11 May 2014)
As a pretext for an invasion into Ukraine?

Mr. Putin said he was acting after receiving a plea for

assistance from the leaders of the Russian-backed separatist
territories formed in eastern Ukraine in 2014 — a move that
Western officials had predicted as a possible pretext for an
invasion.
(The New York Times, 23 Feb. 2022)
Once upon a time in East Asia

Declaration of Independence of Manchukuo (1932)

Leaving the lives of our 30 million people of Manchuria and Mongolia
in this ruthless and lawless zone is nothing but waiting for death. How
can we escape from this situation by ourselves? Luckily enough, we
mowed the evil and remedied the land which had been held by
warlords and ruled with maladministration for years in an instant with
the help of a neighbor. Heaven gave our Manchuria and Mongolia the
chance to revive.
Japanese puppet regimes and Manchukuo

(MIT History Department)

Which claims of independence
should be recognized?
 3. Recognition of
independence in reality
The independence of Kosovo (?)

The Court has concluded above that the adoption of the

declaration of independence of 17 February 2008 did not
violate general international law, Security Council resolution
1244 (1999) or the Constitutional Framework. Consequently
the adoption of that declaration did not violate any applicable
rule of international law.
(International Court of Justice, 2010)
The breakup of Yugoslavia

(BBC NEWS, 22 May 2006)

Judges of ICJ

Christopher Greenwood (United Kingdom) Ronny Abraham (France)

Leonid Skotnikov (Russia) Awn Al-Khasawneh (Jordan)
Thomas Buergenthal (United States) Hisashi Owada (Japan)
Abdul Gadire Koroma (Sierra Leone) Bernardo Sepúlveda-Amor (Spain)
Peter Tomka (Slovakia) Abdulqawi Yusuf (Somalia)
Mohamed Bennouna (Morocco) Bruno Simma (Germany)
Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade (Brazil) Kenneth Keith(Australia)
Material power supporting Kosovo

(BBC NEWS, 27 Oct. 2016)

Republic of Crimea (?)

Declaration of Independence of the Autonomous

Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol (2014)
We, the members of the parliament of the Autonomous Republic of
Crimea and the Sevastopol City Council, with regard to the charter
of the United Nations and a whole range of other international
documents and taking into consideration the confirmation of the
status of Kosovo by the United Nations International Court of
Justice on July 22, 2010, which says that unilateral declaration of
independence by a part of the country does not violate any
international norms, make this decision jointly.
Independence disapproved by the UN

68/262. Territorial integrity of Ukraine

1. Affirms its commitment to the sovereignty, political independence,
unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally
recognized borders;
2. Calls upon all States to desist and refrain from actions aimed at the
partial or total disruption of the national unity and territorial integrity
of Ukraine, including any attempts to modify Ukraine’s borders
through the threat or use of force or other unlawful means;
(United Nations General Assembly, 24 Mar. 2014)
 Is there consistency in the
recognition of independence ?
References

James Crawford, 2006. The Creation of States in International Law,

2nd. Clarendon Press.
Arno J. Mayer, 1969. Wilson vs. Lenin: Political Origins of the New
Diplomacy 1917-1918. Meridian Books.
Kōichi Morikawa et al, 2016. Kokusai-hō de sekai ga wakaru
(International law makes the world intelligible). Iwanami shoten.