CYIL 2015

JAN ONDŘEJ CYIL 6 ȍ2015Ȏ three necessary elements (for example, a state annexed by an aggressor) is therefore considered as a subject of international law in some cases. The creation of a state usually has the character of an historic and social process where international law plays only a marginal role. General international law has no special standard which would regulate the creation of a new state. States are created, for example, by unification, dissolution (break-up) or separation (break-away). For example, by the peaceful break-up of Czechoslovakia on 1 January 1993 the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic were created. The break-away of Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971 can serve as an example of separation. Also the creation of Croatia and Slovenia at the beginning of the 1990s are considered examples of separation. In some exceptional cases the creation of a new state can only be the result of negotiation of other states (for example, the creation of the Cyprus state in 1950) or the resolution of an international organization (e.g. the creation of the state of Israel by resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1947). A state is in fact created and becomes sovereign if it has the basic features of a state (territory, population, and exercise of government authority). The newly created state becomes the subject of international law in the very moment of its creation, and international law grants this newly created sovereign state legal protection . By the fact of its creation the state becomes a subject of international law concerning its basic rights and duties. 11 State territory is not terra nullius , i.e. territory which belongs to nobody and that other states could acquire by occupation. International law protects the sovereignty of state namely by the prohibition of the use of force. An armed attack against the territory of a state or against its political independence would be considered a forbidden act of aggression. Annexation is a forbidden means of acquiring state territory. Domestic sovereignty is protected by the prohibition of intervention (interference) in the domestic affairs of the state . The new state has full territorial jurisdiction, and the validity of acts of its state authority (law making, government and courts) on its territory cannot be ignored by other states. On the other hand, the newly created state is obliged to respect the same standards of international law in relation to all other states without respect to whether these particular states recognize it or not. A state becomes the subject of international law by the fact of its creation. During its creation, however, the principles of international law must be observed to provide for its statehood to be fully effective within the international community. 12 It is, for example, forbidden to use armed forces or race discrimination, and the principle of national self-determination is to be observed. According to Dixon, if the new 11 Among these rights belong the right to exist (self-preservation), right to be independent, equality, the exercise of territorial sovereignty, international awards, self-defense. 12 DIXON, M. Textbook on International Law . Fourth edition. London: Blackstone Press Limited, 2000, p. 111.

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