CONCEPT OF A STATE

DEFINITION
- It is a community of person, more or less numerous, permanently occupying a fixed territory, possessing an organized government, independent of external control, to which a great body of inhabitants render habitual obedience.

STATE VS. NATION

- The state is a legal or political concept, while a nation is a racial or ethnic concept, nearly akin to people.

- Nation, strictly speaking, indicates relation of birth or origin and implies a common race, usually characterized by community of language and customs.

STATE VS. GOVERNMENT

- The State itself is an ideal person, intangible, indivisible and immutable. - The government on the other hand is an agent of the state. - Government refers to the person or group of person in whose hands the organization of the state places for the time being the function of political control.

ELEMENTS OF THE STATE:

1.) People 2.) Territory 3.) Government 4.) Sovereignty

PEOPLE:
- refers to the entire body of those citizens of as State or nation who are invested with political power for political purposes. - No specific number is required, nor is there a legal requirement as to their number. - The number of inhabitants however must be numerous enough to be self-sufficient and to defend themselves and small enough to be easily administered.

TERRITORY:
- is a fixed area or surface of the earth where the inhabitants of a State live and where they maintain a government of their own.

- A territory must neither be too big as to be difficult to administer and defend nor too small as to be unable to provide for the needs of the population.

COMPONENTS OF STATE TERRITORY:

1.) Terrestrial Domain refers to the area of the land which the State occupies. 2.) Fluvial or Maritime Domain refers to the external and internal waters.

3.) Aerial Domain refers to the air space above the land and the waters.

GOVERNMENT
- That institution or aggregate of institutions by which an independent society makes and carries out rules of action which are necessary to enable men to live in a social State, or which are imposed upon the people forming that society by those who possess the power or authority of prescribing them.

DE JURE GOVERNMENT VS. DE FACTO GOVERNMENT - A de jure government is the legal, legitimate government of a state and is so recognized by other states. In contrast, a de facto government is in actual possession of authority and control of the state and in not founded upon the existing constitutional law of the State.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF DE FACTO GOVERNMENT:

1.) That government which gets possession and control of, or usurps, by force or by the voice of the majority, the rightful legal government and maintains itself against the will of the latter. 2.) That which is established and maintained by military forces who invade and occupy a territory of the enemy in the course of war and which is denominated as a government of paramount force. 3.) That established as an independent government by the inhabitants of a country who rise in insurrection against the parent state.

FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT:
1.) Constituent functions Those which constitute the very bond of society, and are, therefore compulsory and not merely optional. These includes: a.) The keeping of order and providing for the protection of persons and property from violence and robbery. b.) The fixing of the legal relations between man and wife and between parents and children.

c.) The regulation of the holding, transmission and inter-change of property, and the determination of its liabilities for debt or for action. d.) The determination of contract rights between individuals. e.) The definition and punishment of crimes. f.) The administration of justice in civil cases. g.)The administration of political duties, privileges and relations of citizens.

FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT:
2.) Ministrant Functions those undertaken only by way of advancing the general interests of society, and are, therefore, optional.

These includes:

a.) Public works b.) Public education c.) Public charity d.) Health and safety regulations e.) Regulation of trade and industry

SOVEREIGNTY:
- is the supreme power in a State by which that State is governed. - It is the supreme, absolute, uncontrollable power by which any State is governed.

CHARACTERISTICS OF SOVEREIGNTY:
1.) Permanence It is the quality by virtue of which the sovereignty of the State continues without interruption so long as the State itself exists. 2.) Exclusiveness It is that quality by virtue of which there can be but one supreme power in the State, legally entitled to the obedience of the inhabitants.

CHARACTERISTICS OF SOVEREIGNTY:
3.) All-Comprehensiveness It is the universality of sovereign within the territorial limits of the State; that is, sovereign power extends over all persons, associations and things within such territorial limits except those over which the State voluntarily consented to waive the exercise of its jurisdiction.

CHARACTERISTICS OF SOVEREIGNTY:
3.) All-Comprehensiveness It is the universality of sovereign within the territorial limits of the State; that is, sovereign power extends over all persons, associations and things within such territorial limits except those over which the State voluntarily consented to waive the exercise of its jurisdiction.

4.) Inalienability It is an attribute of the State by virtue of which it cedes away any of its essential elements without self-destruction.

CHARACTERISTICS OF SOVEREIGNTY:
5.) Imprescriptibility It is the principle exclusively of private law which can never run against the rights of the people and could in no case be invoked in support of an argument that the people had lost their sovereignty through the operation of such principle. 6.) Unity It is the principle that sovereignty cannot be divided without producing several wills, which is inconsistent with the notion of sovereignty.

KINDS OF SOVEREIGNTY:
1.) Legal Sovereignty the supreme law making power. 2.) Political Sovereignty that power behind the legal sovereign which is legally unknown, unorganized and incapable of expressing the will of the State in the form of legal command yet without power to whose mandates the legal sovereign will in practice bow and whose will must ultimately prevail in the State.

KINDS OF SOVEREIGNTY
- In a narrower sense, the electorate constitutes the political sovereign and in a broader sense, the whole mass of population. 3.) Internal Sovereignty implies the power of the State to make and alter its system of government, and to regulate its private affairs, as well as the rights and relations of its citizens, without any dictation, interference or control on the part of any person, body or State outside the particular political community.

KINDS OF SOVEREIGNTY
4.) External Sovereignty that the State spoken of is not subject to the control, dictation or government of any other power.

POWER AND JURISDICTION OF THE STATE:

Extends: 1.) Over persons and things within its territory (Territorial Jurisdiction) 2.) Over its nationals (Personal Jurisdiction) 3.) Outside its territory (Extraterritorial Jurisdiction)

TERRITORIAL POWER AND JURISDICTION:

TERRITORIAL POWER AND JURISDICTION:

- the State has power and jurisdiction over persons and things within its territory. - The following, however, are exempt from such territorial jurisdiction: a.) Foreign States, heads of States, diplomatic representatives and consuls to a certain degree;

TERRITORIAL POWER AND JURISDICTION:

b.) Foreign State property, including embassies, consulates and public vessels engaged in noncommercial activities; c.) Acts of State; d.) Foreign merchant vessels exercising rights of innocent passage or involuntary entry, such as arrival under stress. e.) Foreign armies passing through or stationed in its territory with its permission; and f.) Such other persons or property, including organizations like the United Nations, over which it may, by agreement, waive jurisdiction.

PERSONAL JURISDICTION:
- The State has the power of jurisdiction over its nationals, which may be exercised by the State even if the individual is outside the territory of the State.

EXTRATERRITORIAL JURISDICTION:
- The State has the power and jurisdiction beyond or outside its territory: a.) When it asserts its personal jurisdiction over its nationals abroad or the exercise of its rights to punish certain offenses committed outside its territory against its national interests even if the offenders are nonresident aliens.

EXTRATERRITORIAL JURISDICTION:
b.) When the local state waives its jurisdiction over persons or things in its territory. c.) When it establishes a colonial protectorate or a condominium or administers a trust territory or occupies enemy territory in the course of war; d.) When it enjoys easements or servitudes.

EXTRATERRITORIAL JURISDICTION:
e.) When it exercises jurisdiction over its vessels in the high seas or over pirates while doing a hot pursuit operation. f.) When it exercises limited jurisdiction over the contiguous zone and the patrimonial sea to prevent infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary regulations; g.) When it exercises the principle of exterritoriality (immunities of a head of state in a foreign country..