title: Theory of State Recognition
abstract: What is the function of state recognition? What are the criteria by which it functions? Despite being a recurrent feature of world affairs for nearly 250 years, there is, remarkably, no scholarly consensus on these two questions. Yet they remain as urgent as ever. Even a cursory glance at the latest cases – whether Kosovo, South Ossetia, South Sudan, Palestine, Crimea or Catalonia – demonstrates that recognition and non-recognition represent a central and often highly contentious aspect of confl