10. Государство как субъект международного права. Границы, права и обязанности государств

The Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States 1933. The Convention codified the declarative theory of statehood as accepted as part of customary international law.

A subject of international law is a body or entity that is capable of possessing and exercising rights and duties under international law. States are the most important and most powerful of the subjects of international law. Article 1 of the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States 1933 says 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.’

The Convention was a treaty (which was later accepted as part of "Yankee imperialism”) signed at the Seventh International Conference of American States. At the conference, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull declared the so-called Good Neighbor Policy, which opposed U.S. armed intervention in inter-American affairs. The convention was signed by 19 states. The acceptance of three of the signatories was subject to minor reservations. Those states were Brazil, Peru and the United States.

Provisions taken from “The Declaration on Principles of International Law Concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation Among States in Accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.”

• Every State has the duty to refrain in its international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the UN. Such a threat or use of force constitutes a violation of international law and the Charter of the United Nations and shall never be employed as a means of settling international issues.

• States have the duty to refrain from acts of reprisal involving the use of force.

• Every State has the duty to refrain from organizing or encouraging the organization of irregular forces or armed bands, including mercenaries, for incursion into the territory of another State.

• No State may use or encourage the use of economic, political or any other type of measures to coerce another State in order to obtain from it the subordination of the exercise of its sovereign rights and to secure from it advantages of any kind. Also, no State shall organize, assist, foment, finance, incite or tolerate subversive, terrorist or armed activities directed towards the violent overthrow of the regime of another State, or interfere in civil strife in another State.

• All States shall pursue in good faith negotiations for the early conclusion of a universal treaty on general and complete disarmament under effective international control and strive to adopt appropriate measures to reduce international tensions and strengthen confidence among States.

• Every State has the duty to promote through joint and separate action universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with the Charter.

• Every State has an inalienable right to choose its political, economic, social and cultural systems, without interference in any form by another State.

• Every State has the duty to fulfill in good faith the obligations assumed by it in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.