[PART II]
[CHAPTER V]
STATES
- [19. Definition.]
- (a) Political.
- (b) Sovereign.
- [20. Nature.]
- (a) Moral.
- (b) Physical.
- (c) Communal.
- (d) External conditions.
- [21. Recognition of New States.]
- (a) De facto existence.
- (b) Circumstances of recognition.
- (1) By division.
- (2) By union.
- (3) By admission of old states.
- (4) By admission of former barbarous communities.
- (5) Individual and collective recognition.
- (c) Act of recognition.
- (d) Premature recognition.
- (e) Conditions.
- (f) Recognition irrevocable.
- (g) Consequences.
- (1) The Recognizing state.
- (2) The Recognized state.
- (3) The Parent state.
- (4) Other States.
[§ 19. Definition]
A State is a sovereign political unity. It is of the relations of states that public international law mainly treats. From the nature of its subject-matter it is a juridical, historical, and philosophical science.[51] These sovereign political unities may vary greatly. The unity however
(a) Must be political, i.e. organized for public ends as understood in the family of nations and not for private ends as in the case of a commercial company, a band of pirates, or a religious organization.