Relations Between Nations

Abstract

It is generally said that every recognised independent state is entitled to the right of legation as one of the attributes of sovereignty. The right of legation, it is asserted, comprises the right to accredit its envoy to other states and the obligation to receive diplomatic representatives when accredited by those states. On a closer examination of the authorities and state practice, it would appear that the “right of legation” is no more than the “competence” of a sovereign state to accredit an envoy to another state and to receive the diplomatic agent of a foreign state.¹ Thus no state is obliged to receive an envoyaccredited by another, nor can it be compelled to send its diplomatic agents to other states. It is not obligatory that a state should be diplomatically represented in every country it recognises nor is it necessary that it should consent to receive envoys from all such states. Diplomatic missions are opened in practice, as will be discussed more fully in the next chapter, by mutual consent of the states concerned. Recognition of a state does not therefore mean that all states recognising the new state are bound to open diplomatic relations with it. The right of legation, which is possessed by sovereign states is, however, important from the standpoint of international law in that it denotes the capacity of a state in law to receive and accredit diplomatic envoys. It is not every state that possesses this right since only independent states, which are recognised, are competent in this respect. Consequently, when a state proposes to open diplomatic relations with another, the first test it has to fulfil is that it is an independent state, and secondly that it is recognised as such by the other state. Its government has similarly to be recognised before any diplomatic relations can be opened.