GILDS-Diskussion mit Prof. Jure Vidmar

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Prof. Jure Vidmar will discuss his new book which develops a new theory of territorialism and legal status of territories in international law. The book theorises the concept of territory under international law, redefines the concept of statehood, and grounds the status of non-state territorial entities in the formal sources of international law. The book argues that territory is a social construct. For the purposes of the international community and its legal system, the status of a separate territory is established under treaty and/or customary international law. The theory of territorial status developed in this book diverges from the premise commonly adopted in international legal doctrine - that territories are natural components of states. Rather, territories are created in social relations and for social purposes. The social, rather than natural, origin of territories has consequences for how international law should understand and conceptualise statehood and other forms of territorial status. States and certain non-state units do not occupy a pre-existing territory. It is rather that political decisions create territorial status in a certain spatial area and establish this status in the formal sources of international law.
The GILDS is founded and chaired by Professor Erika De Wet, Head of the Department of International Law and International Relations. erika.de-wet@uni-graz.at