INTRODUCTION
The Contemporary World
Franklin G. Robite
 NAME:
Assoc. Prof. Franklin G. Robite
 EDUCATION:
AB Social Science (WVSU)
M.Ed. (UPV)
 OFFICE: 0V105 (Office of SSD).
 DEPARTMENT CHAIR:
Assoc. Prof. Franklin G. Robite
The Grading System
Prelim
+Midterm Exam
+Quizzes
+Final Exam
+Other Requirements
General Average
Transmutation:
GA÷100x50+50
= 15%
= 20%
= 25%
= 25%
= 15%
=100%
Grade Range:
98-100
95-97
92-94
89-91
86-88
83-85
80-82
77-79
75-76
0-74
1.0
1.25
1.5
1.75
2.0
2.25
2.5
2.75
3.0
5.0
A State is a community of persons more or less numerous, permanently
occupying a definite portion of territory, having a government to which the
great majority of people render obedience and enjoys freedom or
sovereignty from external control.
Elements of a State
1. People – its
population.
2. Territory – the definite
portion of the earth over
which the state’s
3. Government – the agency
jurisdiction extends.
through which the will of the
state is enforced.
4. Sovereignty – is the
supreme, absolute and
uncontrollable power by
which an independent
state is governed.
THEORIES ON THE ORIGIN OF STATES
1. Divine Right Theory. The state is of divine creation and the rulers
were ordained by God to rule.
Dictators throughout history used this theory to justify their tyrannical
rule.
• 2. Force or Necessity Theory. The state
was created when some strong warrior
imposed his will on the other members
of the community. He protects them;
they support him.
3. Paternalistic Theory. The
state was formed through the
enlargement of the family.
4. Social Contract Theory. The state was
created when people entered into a
voluntary agreement to live together
(the social phase) and to establish a
government (the political phase).
The contract calls for the people to
support the state and for the state to
protect the people. Should the
government become corrupt and
decadent, then the people could rise
up and overthrow that government and
replace it with a better one.
The social contract theory encourages a
revolution if it would result to the
betterment of the state.
STATE DISTINGUISHED FROM NATION
1. A state is a political concept;
While a nation is an ethnic concept.
U N D E R I N T E R N AT I O N A L L AW S TAT E I S N O T
E Q U I VA L E N T TO N AT I O N .
N a t i o n r e f e r s t o a p e o p l e e x i s t i n g i n a n o r g a n i z e d s o c i e t y,
inhabiting a portion of the earth, speaking the same language,
having the same customs, possessing the same historic
continuity and distinguished from other groups by their racial
origins and characteristics, and generally living under one
g o v e r n m e n t a n d s o v e r e i g n t y.
Nation-state properly refers to a state whose territorial extent
coincides with that occupied by a distinct nation or people, or at
least, whose population shares a general sense of cohesion and
Adherence to a set of common values.
Sweden
Denmark
Finland
Portugal
Japan
Korea
STATE DISTINGUISHED FROM NATION
2. A State could not exist without
people.
A nation could exist
stateless.
The Kurds live
in at least
four states:
Syria, Iraq,
Iran & Turkey.
STATE DISTINGUISHED FROM NATION
3. A nation could be living in many states;
A State could be composed of many nations
The United States, a multinational state.
The Arabs, divided into many states
RIGHTS OF A STATE:
• 1. Right of existence and
self defense- the right of a
state to use force against
an aggressor state when
and to the extent it appears
to it and it reasonably
believes that such conduct
is necessary to defend
itself from such
aggressor’s imminent or
act of unlawful force .
RIGHTS OF A STATE
2. Right of Independence- It is the
right of a state to be free from
dependence, dictation, subjection,
control and intervention of another
state or exterior power.
RIGHTS OF A STATE
3. Right of Equalitybased on the doctrine
that states are equal as
international persons
regardless of differences
in size, population,
power, degree of
civilization etc.
RIGHTS OF A STATE
• 4. Right of legation- it is
the right of a state to
enter into diplomatic
relations with other
states by receiving and
sending diplomatic
representatives.
FACTORS THAT AFFECT STATE POWER:
1. Area & location;
2. Climate and natural resources;
3. Size and quality of population;
4. Events in history
5. Institutions and policies;
6. alliances and other factors such as international prestige, military
strength, etc.
Modes of acquiring territory
Discovery
• oldest method of acquiring title to
territory;
• not suffice to establish legal title;
• discovered area must be physically
occupied.
• Related to title by discovery is
the hinterland doctrine or the principle
of continuity.
• If a state has made a
settlement, it has a right to
assume sovereignty over all
adjacent vacant territory,
which is necessary to the
integrity and security of the
settlement.
Occupation is the intentional acquisition by a state over a
territory which at the time of claim not under the
sovereignty of any state.
Two requirements:
• (1) the territory subject of
claim must not be under
the sovereignty of any
state (terra nullius); and
• (2) the state must have effectively occupied the
territory, that is, the state claiming the territory must
have exercised immediate occupation (corpus
occupandi) on the territory after it displayed its
intention to occupy (animus occupandi).
• Prescription means
continued occupation
over a long period of
time by one state of
territory actually and
originally belonging to
another state.
Four requirements of
prescription:
1)the possession must be
exercised in the form of
actual exercise of sovereign
authority;
2)the possession must be
peaceful and uninterrupted;
3) the possession must be
public; and
4) the possession must be for
a long period of time.
The peaceful and
continuous display is also
an essential element
although as compared to
occupation, prescription
requires a stricter proof
and longer period of the
display of authority.
Moreover, any protest or
objection by the losing
state destroys the
peaceful display of
authority of the claiming
state.
• Cession is the transfer of
territory usually by treaty
from one state to another.
• Concomitant of transfer of
territory is the transfer of
sovereignty from the
owner state to another
state.
• And since cession is a
bilateral transaction, the
parties involved are states.
• Cession may also be in
the form of exchange
of territory or in the form
gift or donation or
devise.
Conquest is acquiring
territory by the use of force.
The practice before was
after conquest, the
conqueror annexed the
conquered territory to his
state.
Thus, conquest first takes
place followed by
annexation.
But with the establishment
of the United Nations,
conquest is no longer
acceptable in the
international community.
Accretion is the
attainment of sovereignty
over new land due to
slow movement of
natural forces. Example
of this is the gradual
movement of a river bed.
On the other hand, if the
natural forces happened
suddenly, like creation of
an island in territorial
waters due to volcanic
eruption, it is referred as
avulsion.
Reclamation is the
process of creating
new land from
oceans, riverbeds,
or lake beds.
Territorial descriptions of states
Compact States- have roughly
circular shapes.
Prorupt States- nearly compact
but possess one or sometimes
two narrow extensions of territory.
Elongated States- long
and narrow.
Fragmented Statespartly on islands and
partly on the mainland.
Archipelagic
states are states
composed of
islands.
Perforated states are those
whose territories are
dotted by other states.
Land-locked states are
states whose territories are
surrounded completely by
land territories of other
countries