B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 1 Political Science (Theory and Thought) 2011 Jun Question Paper with Solutions

1. Garner: "The state, as a concept of political science and constitutional law, is a community of persons more or less numerous, permanently occupying a definite portion of territory, independent of external control and possessing an organized government to which the great body of inhabitants render habitual obedience."
2. Holland defines it as a "numerous assemblage of human beings, generally occupying a certain territory, among whom the will of the majority or of an ascertainable class of persons is by the strength of such a majority or class made to prevail against any of their number who oppose it."
3. The Montevideo Convention, 1933, article 1: "The State as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: (a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other States."

The four elements in brief

From these definitions come four elements: population, territory, government and sovereignty. Population is the personal basis of the state and sovereignty its supreme authority. Territory and government, which this question asks about in detail, are its material basis and its means of action.

4. What territory includes. Territory is more than land. It includes rivers, lakes and the airspace above. A coastal state also owns a belt of sea. Garner in 1910 put it at three miles. India's Maritime Zones Act of 1976 extends India's sovereignty to its territorial waters "and to the seabed and subsoil underlying, and the airspace over, such waters", up to "twelve nautical miles" from the baseline.

5. Size. There is "no rule or practice concerning the extent of territory necessary to constitute the home of a state" (Garner). Bluntschli thought it "absurd to try to fix a normal limit". A small state is as truly a state as a large one.

6. How territory changes. Territory is "defined", but not frozen. Article 1(3)(c) includes in India "such other territories as may be acquired".

In re Berubari Union and Exchange of Enclaves, AIR 1960 SC 845. India agreed in 1958 to give half of Berubari Union to Pakistan. The Supreme Court held that "two of the essential attributes of sovereignty are the power to acquire foreign territory as well as the power to cede national territory in favour of a foreign State". But cession needs an amendment under article 368, not an ordinary law under article 3.

2. Without it, anarchy. Bluntschli: where "the governed have renounced political obedience, and every one does that which is right in his own eyes, this is anarchy and the State is at an end."

3. What government does. It makes law, carries it out and applies it to disputes. India's Constitution creates these organs. Parliament makes law (article 79). The executive power of the Union is vested in the President (article 53(1)). And there is a Supreme Court (article 124(1)).

4. Its form does not matter. Garner: "The governmental organization may be simple and its functions few", "but there must be a political agency of some kind; there must be governors and governed". Monarchy, aristocracy and democracy all satisfy the element.

5. Government is the agent, not the state. Governments are "mere 'contrivances,' to use the language of Professor Seeley, through which the state manifests itself. They possess no sovereignty, no original unlimited authority, but only derivative power delegated by the state through its constitution". So governments change while the state continues.

1. Before the council they have population and territory, but no government. In Bluntschli's terms, this is anarchy, not a state.
2. After the council they have government and territory, and, being independent, sovereignty. They now form a state.
3. If a neighbour later seized half the island, the state would lose territory but not cease to exist. If the council collapsed into civil war, the element of government would fail.

Conclusion. The state is a permanent community of people in a definite territory, under an organised government, possessing sovereignty. Territory is its material basis. It fixes where the state's law runs and supplies resources and security. It can be changed only as the constitution allows, as Berubari shows. Government is its means of action, and without it there is anarchy. Yet it is only the agent through which the state acts, and the state outlasts every government.