International law and the question of recognition of Palestinian statehood: a legal subaltern reality

Abstract

The recognition of Palestinian statehood, specifically at the United Nations (UN), has been met with questions regarding Palestine’s fulfilment of statehood requirements set out by the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States (1933) and Article 4 (1) of the UN Charter. This essay attempts to understand the barriers that Palestine has faced to achieving full legal recognition by drawing on the concept of International Legal subalternity (ILS) as coined by Ardi Imseis. Through an overview of the concepts of statehood and recognition and an analysis of the history of Palestine and its pursuit of statehood and recognition, a legal subaltern pattern can be discerned. This becomes especially clear through evaluating records from member states at the 6636th Security Council meeting on October 24th, 2011 regarding the Question of Palestine and the Middle East. The historic elements of this paper combined with transcripts from the Security Council meeting reveal that the case of Palestine’s recognition at the UN has been treated as a rule <i>by</i> law approach, rather than the rule <i>of</i> law.