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Introduction to the AJIL Unbound Symposium on Recognition of Governments and Customary International Law

Part of: Recognition of Governments and Customary International Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

James Gathii
James Gathii*
Affiliation:
Loyola University Chicago
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In the lead essay in this symposium, Professor Erika de Wet contends that notwithstanding all of the post-Cold War enthusiasm for a right to democratic governance and the non-recognition of governments resulting from coups and unconstitutional changes of government, a customary international law norm on the nonrecognition of governments established anti-democratically has not emerged. De Wet’s position, primarily based on state practice in Africa, is vigorously debated by six commentators.

Jure Vidmar agrees with de Wet that the representative legitimacy of governments still lies primarily in effective control over the territory of the state. Vidmar, in his contribution, examines recent collective practice when neither the incumbent government nor the insurgents control the territory exclusively, arguing that in such cases states may apply human rights considerations. Like de Wet, however, Vidmar regards state practice as ambivalent and unamenable to ideal-type distinctions between coups (against a democratically legitimate government) and regime changes (to a democratically legitimate government).

Type
Symposium: Recognition of Governments and Customary International Law
Information
AJIL Unbound , Volume 108 , 2014 , pp. 199 - 200
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 2014

References

1 de Wet, Erika, From Free Town to Cairo via Kiev: The Unpredictable Road of Democratic Legitimacy in Governmental Recognition, 108 AJIL Unbound 201 (2015)Google Scholar:

2 Vidmar, Jure, Democratic Legitimacy Between Port-au-Prince and Cairo: A Reply to Erika de Wet, 108 AJIL Unbound 208 (2015)Google Scholar.

3 Roth, Brad R., Whither Democratic Legitimism?: Contextualizing Recent Developments in the Recognition and Non-recognition of Governments, 108 AJIL Unbound 213 (2015)Google Scholar.

4 d’Aspremont, Jean, The Pipe Dream of Constraining Recognition Through Democracy: International Lawyers’ Regulatory Project Continued, 108 AJIL Unbound 219 (2015)Google Scholar.

5 Cerna, Christina M., Democratic Legitimacy and Respect for Human Rights: The New Gold Standard, 108 AJIL Unbound 222 (2015)Google Scholar.

6 Okafor, Obiora Chinedu, Democratic Legitimacy as a Criterion for the Recognition of Governments: A Response to Professor Erika de Wet, 108 AJIL Unbound 228 (2015)Google Scholar.

7 Saranti, Vasiliki, Democratic Legitimacy as a Criterion for Recognition of Governments: A Response to Professor Erika de Wet, 108 AJIL UN BOUND 233 (2015)Google Scholar.