ABSTRACT
Chapter 1, the Introduction, begins with an explanation of multilateral frameworks, which delineate their participation to “States” and invoke the designation “States” in their admission or accession clause. Accordingly, only formal States, which fulfill the traditional requisites for statehood, can by virtue of their status as States adhere to a State-reserved regime. However, contemporary international law is witnessing entities, which are not States in the general-law-sense, being accepted as States and thereby treated as such in many multilateral frameworks. The name given to this acceptance is “a State for a limited purpose” and/or “limited statehood.” This book chooses the Palestinian situation as a case study in order to examine this new phenomenon and the legal angles of limited statehood in multilateral frameworks. The controversial State-status of Palestine has triggered different reactions by different groups of State Parties whenever Palestine has acceded to multilateral frameworks. That is to say, the representative adherences by Palestine make it an ideal case for addressing the two advocated objectives of this book: (1) the acceptance of a controversial entity as a State for a limited purpose in multilateral frameworks, and (2) its significant legal consequences.
