ELEMENTS OF STATE

The term state may means condition of health or economic condition. The term is sometimes loosely used by people to mean states of India, or "the United States of America". Sometimes it mean 'nation' or 'society' or 'government' or 'country'. These uses of the term are not correct at all from the scientific point, of view. It has in fact, a specific meaning which is completely different from its various uses noted above.

Woodrow Wilson defines "state as a group of people organized for law within a definite ternary." Burgess defines state as "a particular portion of mankind viewed as organized unity." Bluntschil says that; "the state is a combination or association of men in the form of Government and governed, on a definite territory, united together into a moral organized masculine personality, more shortly person of definite territory."

J.W. Garner gives a very comprehensive definition of the state. He holds the view that the state as a concept of political science and public law, is a community of persons, more or less numerous, permanently occupying a definite portion of territory, independent, or nearly so, of external control and possessing an organized government to which the great body of inhabitants render habitual obedience."

It-is considered to be the best definition of the state. It ran be summed up as "the state is a collection of human beings occupying a definite territory under an organized government and is subject to no outside control."

A Permanent Population A Defined Territory Government Sovereignty

A Permanent Population

A state is an organization of human beings living together as a community. The population of a state comprises all individuals who, in principle, inhabit the territory in a permanent way. It may consist of nationals and foreigners. As has repeatedly been pointed out by doctrine, the requirement of a population is not necessarily an equivalent of the requirement of nationality.

The population of a state need not be completely homogeneous in culture, language, race or otherwise. Indeed, it is even rare, except for MicroStates, to find a State with a homogeneous people. International law does not require a minimum number of inhabitants constituting a State. The smallest number of nationals in a Micro-State can be found in Nauru and in Monaco. This figure can be even lower if we take into account that theoretically Pitcairn with 52 inhabitants has the right to opt for statehood by virtue of its right to self-determination. No reservations have been made by the international community with respect to statehood because of the limited number of nationals of Micro-States, even if the nationals were outnumbered by foreign residents.

A Defined Territory

The functions of a State, a political and legal community of human beings, must first of all be exercised in a given territory. Territory is a geographical area that is owned and controlled by a government or country to exercise such state sovereignty. Therefore, most of legal professors give and conclude the definition of the territory that territory clearly comprises and refers to land territory which belongs to state and individuals, internal waters and territorial sea (straits) which state claims for sovereignty, and the airspace above this territory.

It is required that the State must consist of a certain coherent territory effectively governed and the territory of a State need not be exactly fixed by definite frontiers. A defined geographical area the existence of Micro-State with minimum land territory such as Monaco (1.95 square kilometer), and the Vatican City (0.44 square kilometer) leads to the conclusion that no minimum size is required for the territory, as this element was never a reason for denying statehood.

Government

The government is the executive branch of the state and has the role to administer the state uniformly in the following aspects: political, economic, social, cultural, use of natural resources, environmental protection, national defense and security, and foreign affairs. Form of state is defined depending on the constitution drafted, generally structure of state can be divided into: unitary state and federal state, this probably affects the government in exercising limit on its power.

Sovereignty

Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided. The definition of the Sovereignty is quite similar to the Independence and they mostly used along together.