On the Names of States: Naming System of States Based on the Country Names and on the Public Law Components of State Titles
German Law Journal (2020), 21, pp. 1257–1282 doi:10.1017/glj.2020.71 ARTICLE On the Names of States: Naming System of States Based on the Country Names and on the Public Law Components of State Titles Peter Takács* (Accepted 20 November 2019) Abstract General questions of name of the state are rarely discussed in the literature of public law, political science or legal theory, its terminology is neglected, and in its current state, it is a source of many misunderstandings. Pointed out these terminological problems this study proposes a theoretical framework for the naming system of states which takes into accounts the public law components of names. Among these components the sig- nificance of four factors are emphasized: the form of state (form of government), the structure, or organization of state, the role of seemingly neutral terms (for example, the words “commonwealth” or “state”), and, on the contrary, the role of politically, religiously or ethnically bound terms (such as “democratic”, “people’s”, “Arab” or “Islamic”) in the names of states. After clarifying the difference between the terms country name and state name (state title), this study shows that there are cases when the state name (state title) function as country name, and when the country name fulfills the communicative function of the state title. Keywords: Legal aspects of the name of state; name of state and international law; state title and constitution; naming system of states regarding public law components of their names; geographical names; activities of UNGEGN; country name and name of state (state title) A. Introduction The issue of country name and state name, or in British English, often “state title,” is rarely subject to analysis.
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