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International Recognition and Its Implications for the Statehood



Author(s)

Ieva Vezbergaite

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DOI:10.17265/2328-2134/2015.11.006

State recognition is perhaps one of the oldest practices in international relations. While recognition is one of the most vexed concepts in international law that has been extensively analyzed and debated, the topic has been traditionally understudied in International Relations (IR). IR scholars find the recognition as tedious topic, because these scholars see states as self-constituted and self-contained bodies—states are a matter of fact and thus state sovereignty (statehood) is a matter of fact. In this paper, we suggest that relationship between recognition and statehood is more complicated than current legal or IR theories hold and we submit that international recognition is one of the constituents of statehood. This proposition challenges to current theoretical models, as it suggests that statehood is actually a creation of international politics rather than a mere fact on ground. The paper reviews the legal and IR perspectives on recognition of states, including reasons for granting recognition/non-recognition and consequences of recognition to the statehood. We develop critique over the current approach of IR and legal theories. While legal theorists painstakingly attempt to isolate “law of recognition” from politics and unsuccessfully attempt to build the normative framework that is universally applicable for all situations, the IR theories fail to grasp the process of state-birth and the role of recognition to the statehood of an entity. We submit that recognition is a political act that has hardly to do with any legal norms. However, recognition is a crucial tool in the system of states where the recognition of an entity by critical mass of states results into that entity‟s entry into the system as a state.

recognition, statehood, international law, international relations