(a) Distinguish whether 'Recognition of States' is an act of policy or of law. Also distinguish between Constitutive and…

Recognition is a contested interface between political judgment and legal consequence. As policy, it is a political decision taken in discretion, reflecting diplomacy, security or ideology. It may be granted, withheld, withdrawn or qualified without creating a legal right in the entity concerned. The Estrada doctrine illustrates this: states may maintain relations without expressly recognising, treating non-recognition as policy rather than legal denial. As law, recognition produces legal consequences, may involve legal duties, and may be governed by rules or collective institutional decisions. Admission to the United Nations is a collective act conferring membership rights and duties, and recognition can affect treaty-making, litigation and diplomatic protection. Thus policy has discretion and political effect; law has legal effect and may be collective or institutional.

Constitutive theory holds that a state comes into legal existence only when recognised; recognition creates statehood. It is associated with Oppenheim. Declaratory theory, associated with Lauterpacht and reflected in the Montevideo Convention criteria, holds that a state exists when it has a permanent population, defined territory, government and capacity to enter relations; recognition merely declares that fact. Contemporary practice is mixed: objective criteria matter, but recognition remains politically significant. Kosovo and Palestine show qualified or divided recognition, with some states conferring legal effects and others not, so neither pure theory fully explains statehood.

State succession is the transfer of responsibility for a territory’s international relations from one state to another. It differs from succession of governments, where the same state changes its internal regime but its international identity continues. Theories include Grotian/Vattelian universal succession, in which the successor inherits all rights and obligations; continuity theory, preserving legal identity; organic succession, treating succession as natural development; and clean slate or tabula rasa, especially for newly independent states, beginning with a fresh legal position.

Rights and obligations include treaties, state property, archives, debts, nationality and membership in international organisations. Treaty succession is governed by the 1978 Vienna Convention on Succession of States in respect of Treaties; newly independent states generally follow a clean-slate rule for predecessor treaties and debts, though equitable apportionment may be used in particular cases and is not universal. State property, archives and debts are addressed by the 1983 Vienna Convention, which has not entered into force, so customary rules and negotiated settlements apply. Nationality rules determine which persons become nationals of the successor. Membership in international organisations depends on practice: after 1947 India continued as a UN member while Pakistan applied and was admitted; after 1991 Russia continued the USSR’s UN seat while other republics applied.

UNCLOS 1982 codifies the Law of the Sea. Its features are maritime zones: internal waters, territorial sea, contiguous zone, EEZ, continental shelf, high seas and the deep seabed Area; regulation of navigation, resources, environment and research; and institutions such as the International Seabed Authority, ITLOS and the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. UNCLOS provides multiple dispute-settlement mechanisms, including the ICJ, ITLOS, arbitration and special arbitration.

The difference between the territorial sea and EEZ is jurisdiction. The territorial sea extends up to 12 nautical miles and is subject to coastal sovereignty, limited mainly by innocent passage. The EEZ extends up to 200 nautical miles and gives the coastal state sovereign rights over natural resources and jurisdiction over specified activities such as artificial islands, marine scientific research and environmental protection, but not full sovereignty; freedoms of navigation, overflight and laying submarine cables remain. Thus the territorial sea is a sovereignty zone with passage rights; the EEZ is a resource and regulatory zone preserving high-seas freedoms.