International law and non-recognized entities: towards a frozen future?

Bowring, Bill (2021) International law and non-recognized entities: towards a frozen future? In: Harzl, B.C. and Petrov, R. (eds.) Unrecognized Entities. Perspectives in International, European and Constitutional Law. Law in Eastern Europe 69. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. ISBN 9789004499096. (In Press)

Abstract

The non-recognized entities of interest to this collection, and this chapter in particular, must be entities which in principle are capable of being, and consider themselves to be, entitled to statehood. As such, as a minimum, they must meet the well-known criteria for Statehood contained in the 1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States : permanent population; defined territory; government; and capacity to enter into relations with other States. The last will come into play if only, of course, they were recognized. But they are not. Among the questions I pose in this chapter are the following. What are the consequences of non-recognition for these entities? What will happen if they attempt to secede? That is, if they are part of an existing state. Or if the question of secession even arises. In several cases, in my opinion, it does not. In essence, this is the collision between the desire for and right to self-determination, and the opposition of the state in which the entity in question finds itself. If it ever found itself in any other state. It is evident that there is considerable complexity. In identifying the issues or answering the questions. After preliminary remarks as to the case studies in this volume, I turn, secondly, to a very useful 2011 political science examination of the issues of non-recognition, and the various different names under which it has been studied. Third, I consider a 2014 collection on self-determination and secession to which I contributed, and the particular approaches taken by the respective authors. Fourth, I return in more detail to the case studies in this collection. Each of the three collections I consider has in common with each other a central place for the four post-Soviet unrecognized entities mentioned above. Fifth, before concluding, I consider again the route to the ‘gold standard’ for recognition, which is admission to and membership of the United Nations, and the role of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) in campaigning for the peoples which do not yet have their own states

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