19. Subjects of international law

The fundamental or primary subjects of international law 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. States are the backbone of the community. They possess full legal capacity, that is, the ability to be vested with rights, powers, and obligations.

For historical reasons, there are at present about two hundred States including a few mini-States. In principle, all States are equal. However, one particular class, a handful of States with strong economic and military systems, holds authority in the international community.

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. They assert themselves by force and acquire international status proportionate to their power and authority. However, their existence is by definition provisional: they either win and turn into fully fledged States or are defeated and disappear.

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.