ABSTRACT
The overwhelming majority of writers on international law seem inclined to advocate that states only be recognized as legal persons in international law. The modern states having been characterized as corporate persons, it might be asked whether states in the sense of international law are the only corporate persons which are endowed with legal personality in international law. The definition of the state in terms of corporate personality, however, is not comprehensive enough to reveal those implications of the state concept which are traditionally involved in any discussion of the state's personality under international law. It seems, therefore, necessary to examine the essential legal characteristics of the state in comparison with other types of composite corporate persons. The functioning of a government has repeatedly been recognized as the decisive factor in proving the existence, or the coming into existence, of a state in the sense of international law.
