Features of the International Legal Status of Unrecognized States

INTRODUCTION. The modern system of international relations is characterized by the presence of unrecognized states – political-territorial entities that possess features of statehood but have not received official recognition from the international community. The existence and functioning of such political-territorial entities within the official borders of sovereign states entails the emergence of a conflict between the principle of territorial integrity and the right of peoples to self-determination. The resolution of this contradiction largely stems from two opposing theoretical approaches to state recognition: declarative and constitutive – which does not allow for finding a universal solution to the problem of the international legal status of unrecognized states. Under conditions of such legal uncertainty, unrecognized states are forced to function within a dualistic international legal status, characterized by a divergence between formal and actual capabilities. The purpose of this article is to identify the features of the international legal status of unrecognized states and to determine the nature of limitations on their legal personality in the modern system of international relations.
MATERIALS AND METHODS. The study utilized a wide range of international legal instruments, including the UN Charter and the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States. Materials from judicial practice of national courts and international arbitrations on the application of law of unrecognized states were also examined. Additionally, official documents and agreements regulating actual interaction between unrecognized states and sovereign states were analyzed. General scientific methods (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, systemic method) and special scientific methods were employed, including comparative legal method, formal legal method, method of legal practice analysis, and structural-functional analysis.
RESEARCH RESULTS. The article establishes distinctions between unrecognized states and related categories, including partially recognized states and states not recognized by individual states. Analysis of formal and substantive approaches to defining unrecognized states, as well as integrative concepts developed in contemporary international law doctrine, was conducted. Key limitations of the international legal status of unrecognized states were examined and mechanisms of their actual participation in international relations were identified.
DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS. Based on the conducted analysis, a conclusion has been formulated about the dualistic nature of the international legal status of unrecognized states, which manifests itself in the division into formal-legal and factual components. It has been substantiated that formally and legally, unrecognized states correspond to three of the four criteria of statehood according to the Montevideo Convention, but lack the capacity for official establishment of relations with sovereign states (the fourth criterion). It has been established that the factual international legal status of unrecognized states is formed as a result of the implementation of sovereignty by other states as participants in international interstate relations, which enter into unofficial political and economic interactions with unrecognized states. Similarly, international intergovernmental organizations and integration associations, which are not sovereign entities, can also enter into actual interactions with unrecognized states. A conclusion has been drawn that the international legal status of unrecognized states is not universal in nature and is formed individually depending on the positions of individual subjects of international interstate relations that enter into interaction with such states.

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