The people's self-determination and the recognition of states

Δεν διατίθεται περίληψη στα ελληνικάThe article deals with the development of two traditional concepts of international law and relations, that of the principle of self-determination of peoples, and that of the recognition of States, through the policy followed by the European Community during the crisis in Eastern Europe. After a short description of the relaxant position of the Community, as depicted in the documents of the Europeans Political Co-operation, the Peace Conference on Former Yugoslavia, and the Comminion of Arbitration, the writer proceeds to two conclusion:a) that the principle of self-determination, as applied by the Community, follows the traditional patterns developed during the period of decolonisation (uti possidetis). The Community distinguishes between external self-determination (a right attributable only to the republics of the former federation) and internal self-determination, which coincides with the rights of minorities within a given state.b) that the notion of recognition of States has been enriched by the Community by the addition of a number of new requirements for recognition which must be satisfied before an entity is approved by any individual state- party to the Community as an equal partner in international relations. Yet the writer is uncertain whether these requirements may eerily become usual conditions of recognition, accepted by general international law as customary requirements of general application