The Law of Statehood as a Constellation of Hybrids

Abstract

In international law, thinking about the spatial organization of the world is saturated. Articulated around what has commonly been called the law of statehood, international law occupies all of the practical, imaginary, and cognitive universe within which international lawyers conceive spatial order. It is argued in this essay that, in international lawyers’ saturated practical, imaginary, and cognitive universe, everything has already been thought regarding the spatial organization of the world. In the following sections, the main categories of thought with respect to the law of statehood — territorial integrity, secession, self-determination, recognition, statehood, effectiveness, etc. — are construed as hybrid meaning-giving devices that allow the law of statehood to occupy all of the practical, imaginary, and cognitive universe. From the heuristic perspective defended in this essay, the law of statehood is a constellation of hybrid concepts outside which there is nothing left to think about the spatial organization of the world.

Keywords: International Law, Statehood, Self-Determination, Territorial Integrity, Recognition, Secession, Remedial Secession