3 Recognition of Government and State

Of state: acknowledgment of a new international person (Bangladesh 1971–72's swift recognition wave; Eritrea 1993; South Sudan 2011; Kosovo 2008's divided reception — the recognition's contested politics intact).Of government: acknowledgment that a new regime is the state's government (the state continuing — no new statehood question): the criteria — effective control (the classic test), plus the community's political judgments on legitimacy of origin. The doctrines of response to unconstitutional change:1. Tobar doctrine (1907): withholding recognition from governments arising from coups against constitutional order (Latin America's constitutionalism doctrine);2. Betancourt doctrine: its democracy-requirement extension;3. Wilson's constitutionalism — non-recognition of unconstitutional seizures;4. Estrada doctrine — the modern mainstream: recognition of governments is neither granted nor withheld (an intervention in domestic affairs); relations simply continue or not. Nepal'snote: the recurrent question of Nepali history in reverse — other states' recognition of Nepal'ssuccessive governments — has followed the Estrada pattern (relations continuous through Rana, royal and republican transitions); and Nepal's own recognition practice (e.g., the early recognition of Bangladesh in 1972? Nepal recognized Bangladesh in 1972 — the subcontinent's politics of the moment) illustrates recognition's diplomatic uses.