The legal concept of the state refers to the arrangement of an integrated and homogeneous organisation that consists of social, economic, political, legal and military institutions. All these units work to accomplish their goals within a common intellectual ideology and philosophy adopted to create a harmonious and stable state.187 Thus, the state is a system or
structure that promotes social coexistence within a single legal framework and the limits of a specific intellectual tradition. The state marks an intellectual and theoretical construction of a shared lifestyle that achieves an advanced stage of quality of life.188
Thus, the state is a social and political phenomenon possessing complex elements that are interdependent and integrated with each other.189These elements include the aims to establish the supremacy of state power, to determine the composition of the system and to distribute powers among the various elements of the state.190 In addition, the state involves a government system which may practice all the methods and means of exercising state power; this system is part and parcel of the political regime.191 A government system is a broad concept, encompassing the procedures and methods not only of executing the authority of the state but also of exercising political power by sharing it with political parties and civil society
187J. Craig Barker, International Law and International Relations, London , Continuum, 2000, pp 38-41 188Thomas Grantd , Defining Statehood: The Montevideo Convention and its Discontents,
Columbia Journal of Transnational Law (1999) Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 403 - 457. See also Aleksandar Pavković, Peter
Radan, On the Way to Statehood: Secession and Globalisation, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2008, pp 1-45. See also Milena Sterio; David Wippman, Creating and building a "state": international law and Kosovo, Proceedings of
the Annual Meeting-American Society of International Law (2010) Vol. 104, p. 361.
189Jean D'Aspremont, Participants in the International Legal System: Multiple Perspectives on Non-State Actors in International Law, Taylor & Francis, 2011, p98
190Obiora Chinedu Okafor, After Martyrdom: International Law, Sub-State Groups, and the Construction of
Legitimate Statehood in Africa, Harvard International Law Journal (2000) Vol. 41, No. 2, pp. 503 – 528.
191Martin Dixon, Robert McCorquodale, Sarah Williams, Cases and Materials on International Law, Oxford
University Press, 2011, p 135. See also Max Byrne, The Failed State and Failed State- Building: How Can a Move Away From the Failed State Discourse Inform Development in Somalia? Birkbeck Law Review (2013) Vol. 1 ,No. 1.
organisations in the political system. In any state, political power is perceived as authentic only if it is not derived from other authority; instead, other entities draw their authority from the political power. The state’s political power is defined as general competence in all aspects of life within the state, in contrast to other authorities which are concerned with the organisation of a single, particular aspect of the people’s lives. In addition, political power marks a distinction between the state and the nation. Political power is required to establish the state; however, political power is not necessary for the existence of the nation.192
The legal construction of the state shows that, in the existence of the separate, legal person of the sovereign, political power emerges as the highest internal authority and claims the capacity to represent the people of the nation abroad.193As well, political power confers the right to issue political decisions both within and outside the state which reflect the philosophy espoused by the state. Thus, the state is an independent entity which possesses the characteristic of stability and promotes a sense of solidarity among certain members of the human race.194 The forms and models of the state have varied according to different intellectual philosophies and popular ideologies which, in turn, have been influenced and governed by the strength of the ruling elite. We find different legal forms for running countries such as socialist and capitalist states.195As well, there are democratic countries that support the effective rule of law and social justice and police states that rely on the suppression of intellectual and religious freedoms and beliefs and permit only one ruling party.196
The intellectual philosophy of state administration emerges during certain stages of building or rebuilding the state. The standards of state-building have varied, and views on it are
192Gerard Kreijen, State Failure, Sovereignty And Effectiveness: Legal Lessons from the Decolonization of Sub- Saharan Africa, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2004, pp 11-26. See also Dan Stigall, Comparative Law and State-
Building: The "Organic Minimalist" Approach to Legal Reconstruction, Loyola of Los Angeles International &
Comparative Law Review (2007) Vol. 29, No. 1. See also Jorri Duursma, Fragmentation and the International Relations of Micro-states: Self-determination and Statehood, Cambridge University Press, 1996, pp 18-20. 193Hans Kelsen, The legal state in international law, The Lawbook Exchange., 2009, pp 180-229
194Joseph H. Weiler, Differentiated statehood? "Pre-states"? Palestine@the UN; EJIL and EJIL:Talk!; the
strange case of Dr. Ivana Radacic; looking back at EJIL 2012 - the stats; changes in the masthead - our scientific advisory board; in this issue, European Journal of International Law (2013) Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 1 – 11.
195Masahiro Igarashi, Associated Statehood in International Law, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2002, p 5. Also
see Obiora Chinedu Okafor, Re-Defining Legitimate Statehood: International Law and State Fragmentation in
Africa, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2000, p72. See also Milena Sterio, The Right to Self-determination Under International Law: "selfistans", Secession and the Rule of the Great Powers, Routledge, 2013, p 47
196Matthew Craven, Statehood, Self-Determination, and Recognition, International Law , Oxford University
multiple. I next examine these perspectives in order to understand the legal nature of state- building and rebuilding driven by demands for the right to self-determination.