INTERNAL SELF-GOVERNMENT IS THE PRIORITY CONSTITUENT OF STATE SELF-GOVERNMENT
Friday, 28 October 2011 04:59
Within the activities of the Association of Self-determining
States’ Universities, Pro-rector of the Transdniestrian Moldovan
Republic State University on international relations, lawyer Michael
Kushakov participated and made a speech at the recent round-table
discussions taken place at the NKR NA. Introducing the forms of
state self-government, he drew parallels between Transdniestria and
Nagorno Karabakh as de-facto self-governing states, which deserve the
international community’s recognition. Self-government is the basic
feature of a state, testifying to its full value. First, this term was
used by French philosopher, lawyer and political scientist Jan Boden
who defined sovereignty as a state’s absolute and permanent power. The
power is absolute for citizens in the sense of being free from any
law. Starting his speech with this introduction, M. Kushakov noted
that the two Republics – Transdniestria and Nagorno Karabakh – are
comparable just in the establishment of their state self-government.
And how should one judge a state – by its being recognized or not,
and what is more important – to be authorized with full sovereignty or
be merely recognized? That is to have all state attributes within the
state or to be recognized by other states. As of Kosovo, the speaker
figuratively expressed his opinion, emphasizing that Kosovo as a state
is, actually, demolished, due to the lack of a power in the state.
But, it is recognized and everybody knows who the power’s helm there
is. Why it was recognized? The answer is clear – it was recognized
due to a political necessity and due to the world’s principle of dual
standards. And the forces, which rule the world, use terms at their own
discretion. The USA and some other states consider that Kosovo deserves
recognition and its people have the right to self-determination. The
situation in Nagorno Karabakh and Transdniestria is the same, but
the principle of territorial integrity is applied to these states.
Finally, in what case is state self-government considered full-fledged,
asks Kushakov. Does it really concern the state formations, which,
at the familiar historical stages, were independent, say, from
Pope, the Church or German Empire?.. Autocratic states periodically
appeared at the historical stage, stating their supreme power and
their excusive rights proceeding from this. They are the rights to
law adoption, war or peace declaration, top officials’ appointment,
implementation of the supreme court’s functions, amnesty declaration,
coinage realization, and others.
Speaking of the level of internal self-government in the Nagorno
Karabakh and Transdniestrian Republics, Mr. Kushakov noted that the
authorities in both states control the entire territory. They are
legal authorities. Or, in both cases, the state fully realizes its
functions and fully ensures state self-government in its territory.
The Nagorno Karabakh Republic and the Transdniestrian Moldovan Republic
are de-facto existing states. According to the lawyer, besides the
terms of unrecognized, partly unrecognized and fully unrecognized,
other terms are also applied to states, such as de-facto state,
transition state, mega-state, and others. “There are numerous names
of states, and this is right. The main thing for us is that we
exist, and the most important is our future peaceful existence”,
said the lawyer. Michael Kushakov recalled the lawyers-scientists
having corresponding researches on self-government. American scientist
Steve Krasner, who is considered one of the founders of the western
procedure of state self-government, introduced its four constituents.
The first is internal sovereignty, or implementation of the principle
of public power establishment within a state and the society’s
control over it. The second constituent is the self-government’s
interdependency – a state’s ability to control its financial, manpower,
and commodity resources crossing the state borders. The third is
international-legal self-government, which establishes states’ equal
rights at the international arena. And the fourth is the ‘westphal’
self-government, which hampers the outer factors in promoting the
power authorities’ distribution within a state.
Krasner considered internal self-government as a special form of
relations between the power and political community, as a choice of
government. In Transdniestria and Nagorno Karabakh, self-government is
realized by the people’s will – via a referendum and adoption of the
Republic’s basic law, which provides construction of an independent,
sovereign, democratic, and legal state in the form of presidential
government. It is characterized by the existence of three power
branches – legislative, executive, and juridical. According to
Kushakov, internal self-government is fully realized in the Nagorno
Karabakh and Transdniestrian Republics. As of the self-government’s
interrelation, to date, the world processes of globalization,
migration, and commodity transportation bring the overwhelming majority
of states to certain problems, as a result of which this constituent
of self-government is hard to implement. It refers also to both
unrecognized Republics – the money, commodity, and other resources
flow in different directions, due to the difficulty to control them.
The international-legal or foreign self-government supposes recognition
of a state by other sovereign states, if it is accepted as the
only representative authorized to speak on behalf of the people or
political community. In this case, self-government supposes a status,
which is called to legitimize the sovereign power before the citizens.
De-facto recognition of self-government means to recognize its equal
status, along with the others. But, in case of Nagorno Karabakh and
Transdniestria the system of legalization doesn’t operate so far. For
the international recognition, it is, first of all, necessary to
legitimize the generality of the territory’s inhabitants. Though
Krasner considers outer self-government an important means of
introducing a state at the international arena, however, it is
considered secondary. The international-legal or outer self-government
is secondary, compared with the internal self-government. And the
‘westphal’ model of self-government provides a state’s intolerance
towards foreign interference – it is the case when the state doesn’t
allow foreign forces interfering in its domestic affairs. Being
recognized by other states, a self=governing community gains peculiar
immunity against foreign interference. “Unfortunately, we haven’t
got such immunity yet, as we are considered unrecognized states”,
said the lawyer, adding, “We haven’t got it, compared with those
who committed crimes in the territories of our states, towards our
people. We tried them by our courts and then released, but they ordered
the international courts to recognize their actions legal. Or, if they
subjected our people to slaughter, it is considered legal, according
to the international criterion or international court’s decision”.
In conclusion, Mr. Kushakov emphasized that among the acting
constituents of state self-government, the basic is considered the
internal self-government, and the issue of foreign self-government is
to be resolved for both unrecognized Republics. He believes that the
statehood development is currently more important for us. The notion
of ‘delayed status’ is acceptable till the period when achievement
of the international recognition is possible.
The process of states’ division is underway in the world. The map
of Europe, as life testifies, is modified. It isn’t avoided by
such developed states as Great Britain, France, Italy, Belgium,
and Holland. In addition, the processes taking place in our regions.
Ruzan Ishkhanian