Valstybių pripažinimas tarptautinėje teisėje
Recognition of the Republic of Lithuania and International Law

Summary/Abstract: This article focuses on the example of the Republic of Lithuania to analyse issues relating to the recognition of states under international law. The first problem faced by the international legal doctrine is that there is no unified concept of states’ recognition. The second problem is that criteria on states’ recognition are not settled.The first recognition as a real sovereign entity had great significance both for the first and second recognition of the state of Lithuania. The actions of the European Union in formulating criteria for the recognition of states must be praised, and it is suggested that all EU member states should use these criteria. The significance of state recognition is an issue for open discussion. According to the doctrine of international law, two main theories are commonly used to explain the significance of such recognition: constitutive theory and declaratory theory. In the author’s opinion, both of these theories fail to reflect the real significance of state recognition in the 21st century. These issues are analysed in the paper.

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