PUBLIC LAW II:
Public International
Law
Prof. Dr. Gleider Hernández
Professor of Public International
Law Institute for
International Law Faculty of
Law, KU Leuven
2020-2021
,Structure of Today’s Lecture
o Meaning of International Legal Personality
o Participants in the International Legal System:
States
o Criteria for Statehood
o Recognition: declaratory and
constitutive theories
o Is there a duty to recognise entities that meet
the criteria of statehood?
• Recognition of governments and its effects
2
,International legal personality
o Difficult concept to define; in practice means
a measure of subjecthood
o Subjecthood implies a measure of being able to
exercise rights and assume duties or
obligations
o Different categories of subjecthood
o Specific effects of international legal personality
are slightly different than the effects of capacity:
• Personality is formal; it is about the nature of what you
are;
• Capacity is substantive, concerning
3
what you can and
cannot do
, Participants in the International Legal
System: States
o States remain the primary entities in
international relations
o States have the full set of rights and obligations
under international law: they are its plenary subjects
o States may delegate international personality and the
capacity to act under international law to other subjects
of international law
o States are all equal—there is no such thing as a less-
than- equal State (principle of sovereign equality)
4
Public International
Law
Prof. Dr. Gleider Hernández
Professor of Public International
Law Institute for
International Law Faculty of
Law, KU Leuven
2020-2021
,Structure of Today’s Lecture
o Meaning of International Legal Personality
o Participants in the International Legal System:
States
o Criteria for Statehood
o Recognition: declaratory and
constitutive theories
o Is there a duty to recognise entities that meet
the criteria of statehood?
• Recognition of governments and its effects
2
,International legal personality
o Difficult concept to define; in practice means
a measure of subjecthood
o Subjecthood implies a measure of being able to
exercise rights and assume duties or
obligations
o Different categories of subjecthood
o Specific effects of international legal personality
are slightly different than the effects of capacity:
• Personality is formal; it is about the nature of what you
are;
• Capacity is substantive, concerning
3
what you can and
cannot do
, Participants in the International Legal
System: States
o States remain the primary entities in
international relations
o States have the full set of rights and obligations
under international law: they are its plenary subjects
o States may delegate international personality and the
capacity to act under international law to other subjects
of international law
o States are all equal—there is no such thing as a less-
than- equal State (principle of sovereign equality)
4
