The International Law of Statehood and Recognition: A Post-Colonial Invention

Abstract

This contribution seeks to lay bare some of the main conceptual, theoretical, and normative constructions that have informed the rise of the doctrine of statehood into one of the fundamental doctrines of international law and allowed it to continue to prove most influential in contemporary international legal discourses. In doing so, this contribution will make the point that the doctrine of statehood has been shaped by both modern and post-colonial heritages. It will be shown that the main components of the doctrine of statehood are very modern in that they are directly inherited from liberal legal thought. It will simultaneously be demonstrated that it is only in the second half of the 20th century, and more precisely in the wake of the start of the decolonisation process, that all these modern components were assembled and organised in order to compose what is known today as the doctrine of statehood.

Keywords: International Law, Statehood, Subjecthood, Recognition, Doctrine of Statehood, Anthropomorphism, Liberalism, Liberal Legal Thought, Decolonization