17. Subjects of international community

The fundamental or primary subjects are not individuals, but States. They are entities which, besides controlling territory in a stable and permanent way, exercise the principal lawmaking and executive functions proper of any legal order. All other subjects either exercise effective authority over territory for a limited period of time only or have no territorial basis whatsoever. States, therefore, are the backbone of the community. They possess full legal capacity, that is, the ability to be vested with rights, powers, and obligations.

There is another category of international subjects, namely, insurgents, who come into being through their struggle against the State to which they belong. They are born from a wound in the body of a particular State and are not, therefore, easily accepted by the international community unless they can prove able to exercise some of the sovereign rights typical of States.

States and insurgents are traditional subjects of the international community in the sense that they have been the principal actors on the international scene since its inception. In the twentieth century and increasingly after the Second World War, other poles of interest and activity have gained international status. They are: international organizations, national liberation movements and individuals. The emergence of these relatively new subjects is a distinct feature of modern international law.

Unlike States, all the other international subjects just mentioned, on account of their inherent characteristics (e.g. lack of permanent or at least stable authority over a territory, etc.) possess a limited capacity in the area of international rights and obligations. They also have a limited capacity to act, that is, to put into effect their rights and powers, in judicial and other proceedings or to enforce their rights.