Elements of the State: population, territory, government and sovereignty; the Montevideo criteria and the "State" of Article 12
LUG-102 Jurisprudence — Legal Method, Indian Legal System and Basic Theory of Law, Unit I: Elements of State. · LLB · 60 min
The four elements of the State taken one by one: population (size, quality, citizens and aliens, Articles 5 to 11), territory (land, water and air; Article 1 and the First Schedule; cession and the Berubari case), government (the three organs, their forms and the separation of powers) and sovereignty (Bodin, Hobbes, Austin, Dicey; its characteristics and kinds; legal and political, de jure and de facto, popular, internal and external; where sovereignty lies in India); the Montevideo Convention's criteria of statehood and recognition; and the different, wider "State" of Article 12 that the fundamental rights bind (R.D. Shetty, Ajay Hasia, Pradeep Kumar Biswas, Zee Telefilms). It answers the 2023-24 question on the elements of a State and the 2025-26 question on population as an element.
Objectives
- Explain the four elements of the State and why each is essential, with the Indian constitutional provisions on population and territory.
- Define sovereignty, state its characteristics and distinguish its kinds, and locate sovereignty in the Indian constitutional system.
- State the Montevideo Convention's criteria of statehood and the declaratory and constitutive theories of recognition.
- Distinguish the State of political science from the "State" of Article 12 and apply the tests for "other authorities".
Slides
- The four elements
- Population
- Territory
- Government
- Sovereignty I: meaning and characteristics
- Sovereignty II: kinds
- Where does sovereignty lie in India?
- The Montevideo criteria and recognition
- The "State" of Article 12
- Conclusion and exam approach
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