Lecture # 3, 12th Oct. 2015

Sharafat Aliwww.hsadvocates.com/learning-portal/

SUBJECTS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

Art.1 of the Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of States 1933. This stipulates that the ‘state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: (a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) a government; and (d) a capacity to enter into relations with other states’

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF “SUBJECT OF LAW”?

SUBJECTS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

PEOPLE REPUBLIC OF CHINA

THE UNITED NATIONS

VATICAN

MAN OR WOMAN

Israel PLOVS

SUBJECTS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

1. STATE;2. INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION;3. CORPORATIONS;4. HOLY THRONE;5. INDIVIDUAL;6. BELIGERENCY.

A) A state should have legal personality in order to be a subject of international law

• PERMANENT POPULATION;• DEFINED TERRITORY;• GOVERNMENT;• SOVEREIGNITY;• THE CAPABILITY TO ENTER INTO THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN

STATE;• RECOGNITION BY OTHER STATES

B) INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION

• ICJ in an Advisory opinion on the legality of the threat or use of Nuclear Weapons (WHO Case) 1996 ICJ Rep 66 said: ‘international organizations are subjects of international law which do not, unlike states, possess a general competence. International organizations… are invested by the states which create them with powers, the limits of which are a function of the common interests whose promotion those states entrust to them.’

• ORGANIZATION WHOSE MEMBERS CONSIST OF STATES • HAVE A SIGNIFICANT MEMBERSHIP• HAVE A STRUCTURE OF ORGANIZATION

• Regional organization• Multilateral organization

C) COPORATIONS

• There are circumstances in which the contractual relationship between a state and a corporation will be governed by international law.

• For example, a concession agreement for the extraction of oil might be an ‘internationalized’ contract subject to rules of international law (e.g. Texaco V. Libya (1977) or states may have agreed that certain types of dispute with companies be settled by an international panel of judges applying international rules.

• Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes 1964

D) INDIVIDUAL

•A person or citizen is a subject of international law.

•For example: Former Iraqi President, Saddam Husein.

Analyze this case (what is the consequence of considering a person as a subject of international law?

• Slobodan Milosevic, the Yugoslav leader blamed for starting four Balkan wars and impoverishing and isolating his country, was delivered to a prison cell and eventual trial by the UN war crimes tribunal

E) HOLY THRONE

• LATERAN TREATY 1928;• HAS SOVEREIGNITY AS THE

SUBJECT OF INTERNATIONAL LAW;• CAN NOT BE ATTACKED BY ANY

STATE IN THE TIME OF WAR

F) BELLIGERENCY

• THE GROUP OF PEOPLE MAKE AN ACTION TO SEPARATE THEMSELVES FROM THE SOVEREIGNITY OF A STATE.

• THEY POSESS HALF OF NATONAL TERRITORY AND REAL AUTHORITY.