UN state-creation?

Submitted by notthemidwest (United States), May 13, 2010 at 02:47

The author writes that the UN is "the very institution that created the State of Israel." Granting that that statement could be interpreted in a variety of ways, some unobjectionable, I feel the need to take issue with the most striking interpretation. Legally, the UN does not create states, nor has it the legal competence to do so under its charter. The existence of a state is largely a fact based question--based on its having a sufficiently identifiable territory and population, and an effective government--and partially a legal question of whether it has the internal, constitutional competence and actual ability to enter into relations with other states. See the section on "creation of statehood" in Akehurst's Modern Introduction to International Law. Importantly, "recognition" (whether by the UN or any other entity) is not a criterion of statehood, but at most evidence for it.

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