SUBJECTS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF “SUBJECT OF LAW”?

Art.1 of the Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of States

1933.
This stipulates 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’
SUBJECTS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

PEOPLE THE UNITED

REPUBLIC NATIONS
OF THE PH

Israel PLO
VS

VATICAN
MAN OR
WOMAN
SUBJECTS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW
1. STATE;
2. INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION;
3. CORPORATIONS;
4. HOLY THRONE;
5. INDIVIDUAL;
6. BELIGERENCY.
A) A state should have legal personality in order to be a
subject of international law
• PERMANENT POPULATION;
• DEFINED TERRITORY;
• GOVERNMENT;
• SOVEREIGNITY;
• THE CAPABILITY TO ENTER INTO THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
STATE;
• RECOGNITION BY OTHER STATES
B) INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION
• ICJ in an Advisory opinion on the legality of the threat or use of
Nuclear Weapons (WHO Case) 1996 ICJ Rep 66 said: ‘international
organizations are subjects of international law which do not, unlike
states, possess a general competence. International organizations…
are invested by the states which create them with powers, the limits
of which are a function of the common interests whose promotion
those states entrust to them.’

• ORGANIZATION WHOSE MEMBERS CONSIST OF STATES

• HAVE A SIGNIFICANT MEMBERSHIP
• HAVE A STRUCTURE OF ORGANIZATION
• Regional organization
• Multilateral organization
C) COPORATIONS
• There are circumstances in which the contractual relationship
between a state and a corporation will be governed by international
law.
• For example, a concession agreement for the extraction of oil might
be an ‘internationalized’ contract subject to rules of international law
(e.g. Texaco V. Libya (1977) or states may have agreed that certain
types of dispute with companies be settled by an international panel
of judges applying international rules.

• Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes 1964

D) INDIVIDUAL

•A person or citizen is a subject of

international law.
•For example: Former Iraqi President,
Saddam Husein.
Analyze this case (what is the consequence of considering a person as a
subject of international law?

• Slobodan Milosevic, the Yugoslav leader blamed for starting

four Balkan wars and impoverishing and isolating his country,
was delivered to a prison cell and eventual trial by the UN
war crimes tribunal
HOLY THRONE
• LATERAN TREATY 1928;
• HAS SOVEREIGNITY AS THE
SUBJECT OF INTERNATIONAL LAW;
• CAN NOT BE ATTACKED BY ANY
STATE IN THE TIME OF WAR
BELLIGERENCY
• THE GROUP OF PEOPLE MAKE AN
ACTION TO SEPARATE THEMSELVES
FROM THE SOVEREIGNITY OF A STATE.

• THEY POSESS HALF OF NATONAL

TERRITORY AND REAL AUTHORITY.